Posture correction training institution

Reliable and formal institutions can solve more than 70% of functional postural problems caused by acquired habits such as prolonged sitting and bad posture, and can also relieve the accompanying muscle soreness and limited joint movement.； However, if you encounter an agency with incomplete qualifications and routine sales, you will not only spend money in vain, but may even cause muscle strain, joint dislocation, and in severe cases, it will aggravate the original damage to the spine and pelvis.

I met an old colleague who worked in content operations two years ago. He lowered his head to edit for more than 12 hours every day. His head stretched forward almost 10 centimeters, and his shoulders were almost 2 centimeters different. His right arm hurt so much that he couldn't even hold the mouse. At first, Tu found a studio at the entrance of his community. The price was 999 yuan for 12 classes. The instructor came up and pressed down on his shoulders. The pain made him break out in a cold sweat. After returning home, he couldn't move his neck. He went to the hospital to take a film and said he had an acute muscle strain, which took him less than half a month to recover.

Later, he asked someone to find an orthodontic institution that cooperated with the rehabilitation department of a local tertiary hospital. The evaluation alone took more than 40 minutes: static photos of the front, side and back were taken, dynamic videos of walking and squatting were recorded, and a foot pressure test was performed. The final conclusion was that it was not a "shoulder problem" as he thought before - it was a pelvic tilt, long and short legs caused by crossing one's legs all year round, and a slight compensatory scoliosis in the spine. Finally, the high and low shoulders and forward head were revealed. His shoulders were not touched at all in the first three classes, which were all about adjusting his pelvis and breathing pattern. By the eighth class, his arm pain was basically gone. When tested again three months later, the shoulder height difference was reduced to less than 0.3 centimeters, and the forward head extension was mostly improved.

Nowadays, organizations in the industry are actually taking two distinct paths, and they often "fight" each other.

One group is the "functional group" with a background in rehabilitation. The founders or core coaches basically have professional backgrounds in sports rehabilitation and physical therapy. Some are rehabilitation therapists in hospitals who start their own businesses. Their logic is that "postural problems are symptoms and the root cause is functional imbalance." If you say you have rounded shoulders, they will not just ask you to practice pinching your back. They must first check whether the thoracic spine is not flexible enough or not. Is it a problem caused by a wrong breathing pattern, long-term chest breathing, or even lower cross syndrome upward compensation? The priority of correction is always to "relieve pain first, then adjust functions, and finally change the form." The fees of this type of institution are generally high, with a single class basically ranging from 300 to 800. They are suitable for people who already have muscle soreness, joint discomfort, or a history of sports injuries.

The other school is the "aesthetic school" that transforms the fitness and yoga industries. Their main focus is "quickly looking good." Most of the users are young girls who want right-angled shoulders, girly backs, and straight legs. Their plan is more focused on targeted muscle relaxation and shaping. For example, if your trapezius muscles are thick , it will release the upper trapezius muscles for you, add training to the middle and lower trapezius muscles and serratus anterior muscles, adjust the alignment of the lower limbs for your O-shaped legs, and add training to the inner muscle groups. You can see obvious appearance changes in about 10 classes. The price span is also wide, ranging from more than 100 per class to over a thousand.

The controversy between the two approaches is not small. The functional school always feels that the aesthetic school "treats the symptoms but not the root cause". It only adjusts the superficial muscles. The root cause is not solved. It will rebound after two months. It may even increase the compensation due to random training.； The aesthetic school also thinks that the functional school is too "fussy". Most users have no pain problems at all and just want to look good in skirts. They can't afford to spend a lot of money to do a bunch of tests and spend two months to see some changes. In fact, both types have their own applicable groups, and there is no absolute right or wrong.

To be honest, most of the people who fall into this trap are so deceived by sales that they fail to understand their own needs. I once met a 16-year-old girl with congenital idiopathic scoliosis of less than 20 degrees. The doctor originally asked her to wear a brace for regular check-ups. However, a salesperson from an organization deceived her and said, "No surgery or braces, and I will straighten it with my bare hands in 3 months." She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finally, she went to the hospital for a review, and the scoliosis worsened to 32 degrees, so she had to arrange surgery.

So no matter how impressive the institution is, as long as they don’t give you a detailed assessment, take a picture for 30 seconds, tell you that you have a dozen problems, urge you to buy a large course package with dozens of classes, then just turn around and leave. There are also those who crack your neck and spine as soon as you get started. You should also be careful. A really reliable institution will ask you to take X-rays to rule out structural problems before making any passive adjustments to you - such as congenital bone deformities, severe scoliosis, herniated discs, etc. These cannot be solved by training institutions at all, and you must go to the hospital.

I have accompanied my friends to five or six institutions, and I have come up with a very simple judgment standard: the more reliable an institution is, the less likely it is to give you a guarantee. It will not say "10 classes will guarantee you a straight leg" or "a month will help you get rid of the wealth bag". Instead, it will tell you clearly, "You are a muscle type. After 8 classes, you can probably improve by 60%. You will have to change your habit of crossing your legs and playing with your mobile phone with your head down, otherwise you will definitely rebound." On the contrary, those who immediately boast about 100% results and refunds if they fail are basically just trying to make quick money.

To put it bluntly, before looking for a posture correction institution, you should first understand your situation: if the pain is so severe that it affects your normal life, go to the orthopedics or rehabilitation department of the hospital for investigation first, and then find a functional institution after ruling out structural problems.； If you just want to improve your appearance without any discomfort, it’s no problem to find an aesthetic institution with complete trainer qualifications and good case studies.

After all, posture problems are the result of years of bad habits. Even if they are corrected, if you cross your legs and browse your phone for 10 hours every day, no matter how good the organization is, it will be useless.