Spinal Bifida Occulta... - JP Fitness Forums

Carpe Diem · 03-04-2007, 03:28 PM

After meeting JP at the Little Rock Fitness Expo yesterday I thought I'd take a look at his forum. What a wealth of info, great job JP! I have been a nurse for over 13 years, personal trainer for the last 4 years, and am working on my master's in fitness management. I still consider myself quite novice in the personal training relm and am open to all information.

I have a client that has spinal bifida occulta(SBO). She is 35 y.o., 66", 125 lbs. She has had three children and stated she has not had any major problems. The only time her back aches is when she is doing sit-ups, but it resolves when she rests for a minute of so. She has not participated in any fitness regime on a consistent basis.

I read up on the condition and found little information, except on specifically what it is and that up to 25% of the general population unknowingly have this condition. As far as specific exercises I could not find anything. Anything I did find was directed to spinal bifida, not SBO. My plan was to work on strengthing the lower back and abs via exercises not involved in lying in the supine position (i.e. crunches). I want to focus on functional exercises that will aid in her day to day life. Thoughts?

russ · 03-04-2007, 06:05 PM

I'm pretty sure that spina bifida occulta is generally felt to be asymptomatic and shouldn't impact on a training program. It is a common incidental finding on x-rays, and I don't think it's felt to be related to symptomatology. I'll do a bit of review on it later tonight.

Oh, and come to the summit

UConnJulie · 03-05-2007, 10:49 AM

I generally agree with Russ, but it would be helpful to find out a little more info. For example my father (age 67) was born with SBO ... and you would never know it now, but he had a card he was required to carry when he was younger that listed all of his abnormalities ... ribs fused, vertebrae fused, other vertebrae incompletely formed, etc ... so if hers is just the incidental SBO where she has minimal malformations, it was just incidentally picked up on an x-ray, then she wouldn't really have any restrictions. If she is like my father and had physical therapy as a child and wore special braces and was restricted from contact sports, then you will need more specific info ... and in that case I would ask her to see an ortho to get any limitations.

PS: And welcome to the site!!

Carpe Diem · 03-05-2007, 07:13 PM

She made it sound very benign...just has a piece of the vertebrae missing. I'll ask her specifics at our next session just to make sure. Thank you for the insight.

Jean-Paul · 03-05-2007, 07:39 PM

Welcome CD. Glad you found your way to this little slice of the internet. Prepare to have a gazillion gigabytes of training knowledge downloaded into your brain!

russ · 03-05-2007, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UConnJulie

I generally agree with Russ, but it would be helpful to find out a little more info. For example my father (age 67) was born with SBO ... and you would never know it now, but he had a card he was required to carry when he was younger that listed all of his abnormalities ... ribs fused, vertebrae fused, other vertebrae incompletely formed, etc ... so if hers is just the incidental SBO where she has minimal malformations, it was just incidentally picked up on an x-ray, then she wouldn't really have any restrictions. If she is like my father and had physical therapy as a child and wore special braces and was restricted from contact sports, then you will need more specific info ... and in that case I would ask her to see an ortho to get any limitations.

PS: And welcome to the site!!

Good call----it can be associated with other congenital malformations.

On it's own, it tends to be benign as it is not associated with meningomyeloceles (it's generally not 'occulta' if there's a meningomyelocele).