Posture correction consultation

The core of posture correction has never been to break bones and follow the trend of Internet celebrity movements. It is to first find the trigger source of your bad posture, and then match the corresponding adjustment plan - 90% of daily non-pathological posture problems. There is no need for sky-high bone correction or tens of thousands of private rehabilitation classes. You can get visible improvements at home for 2-3 months, but the premise is that you don't practice blindly.

I just received a consultation from an Internet operator in 1998. The little girl sat staring at the backstage for 12 hours a day. She stretched her head 4 centimeters forward, her shoulder lines were higher and lower, and her trapezius muscles bulged like two small steamed buns when she wore a sling. She had practiced swan neck online for half a month. Not only did she fail to train her trapezius muscles, but she also felt dizzy from time to time, and it hurt even when she turned her head. The first thing she asked me when she came up was "Do I need to have my bones fixed to get better?"

I first evaluated her cervical spine mobility. Fortunately, it was just muscle tension and cervical curvature straightening. There was no compression of small joints and no need for bone adjustment. Speaking of this, I just want to mention that there is a fierce quarrel between the two mainstream directions of posture adjustment. The sports rehabilitation group believes that all posture problems are caused by imbalanced muscle tension. For example, if you sit in a chair for a long time, the iliopsoas muscles in the front will be tight and the muscles in the back will be tight. The gluteal muscles on the face are not as soft as dough all year round, and the pelvis naturally tilts forward. At this time, if you forcefully break the bones back and return them to their original shape as soon as you sit down, it will be useless. You must first loosen the tense muscles and then activate the useless muscles before you can fundamentally change it. The opinion of the bone-setters also makes sense: If there is obvious joint compression, such as pain when turning the head, or a clicking sound in a certain section of the spine when bending over, it means that the small joints have been misaligned. At this time, no matter how hard you train the muscles, you cannot pull them back. It is much more efficient to find a rehabilitation department of a regular hospital or a qualified bone-setter to reset the joint first, and then do training.

Oh, yes, I must say something more here. Don’t ask the masters in beauty shops and massage parlors on the street to crack your neck. I met a young man last year. The clerk at the massage parlor told him that he had a hunched back. After the massage, he immediately suffered subluxation of the atlantoaxial joint. He had to wear a neck brace for half a month. It is really not a mistake.

Talking back to the little operations girl, I didn’t arrange any complicated training for her at the beginning, so I asked her to change three daily habits: raise the computer in the office by 10 centimeters, so that the top edge of the screen is at eye level, so she doesn’t have to stretch her neck to look at it; set an alarm every 40 minutes and stand for 2 minutes, get a glass of water or look out the window, and don’t sit still for three or four hours; when browsing the phone, hold the phone above your chest, don’t sit on the sofa with your head down and scroll for two or three hours. Then add 15 minutes of training every day: first roll the foam roller for 5 minutes to relax the upper trapezius muscles, and then do 10 sets of deep neck flexor activation. Don't compete when practicing, just feel the muscles in the front of your neck are sore. Don't raise your head so hard that the back of your neck hurts.

She thought this plan was too simple at first, saying that others only gave her an hour-a-day exercise plan, but she stayed with it for less than two months. She sent me a feedback photo last week. Her forward head extension had been retracted by more than 2 centimeters, and her trapezius muscles were mostly flattened. Even the cervical spine pain she had experienced from time to time no longer occurred.

Many people come up and ask if there are any quick actions to "improve XO legs in 7 days" or "build a swan neck in 10 days". How can it be such a good thing? Your body shape is the result of bad habits accumulated over three to five years or even more than ten years. Can you get rid of it in a week? That is the real IQ tax. I have been through this trap myself before. In the early years, I found that my pelvis was tilted forward. I followed online tutorials to practice glute bridge every day. After practicing for a month, my waist hurt so much that I couldn't straighten up. Later I found out that I had pseudoanterior pelvic tilt, which means my core is too weak. When I stand, I subconsciously push my belly forward. It was not caused by tight iliopsoas muscles. Later, I practiced abdominal breathing for half a month to activate my core. I didn't do much glute bridge practice, and my pelvis straightened out on its own.

Some people also say, "I was born with a hunchback, and the bones have become bent and cannot be corrected." This is not entirely true. Except for cases where the scoliosis exceeds 40 degrees and has met the indications for surgery, the "natural hunchback" that most people say is actually a bad habit developed in childhood. The muscle memory has been maintained for more than ten years. It is not that the bones have really grown and deformed. As long as you find the tense muscle groups and slowly relax them, activate the weak muscle groups and slowly build new muscle memory, there will be significant improvements. Of course, if you are pursuing a completely standard body like a model, then you will indeed have to spend more effort. For ordinary people, as long as there is no pain, the clothes look good, and daily activities are not uncomfortable, it is completely enough.

If you are not sure how to correct your posture problem, you can also take a full-body side view of standing or sitting postures, and take a concave shape in front of natural light. You can basically see where the problem lies. Don't practice blindly for a long time, and cause injuries without improvement, which is more gain than loss.

Oh, by the way, a final reminder: If you have obvious pain, numbness, or dizziness when adjusting your posture, don’t force yourself to do it. Go to a regular hospital to take a X-ray first to rule out pathological problems before adjusting. Safety always comes first.