Is it necessary to buy fitness posture correction classes?

Fitness posture correction classes are neither an IQ tax nor a miracle drug. Whether you should buy them or not depends entirely on your actual needs, budget, and whether you can find a reliable provider - there is no unified answer of "necessary" or "unnecessary".

I came across two completely opposite examples in the past two years, which illustrate this problem even more. The planning girl in the same department used to work at her desk until early in the morning every day, reworking plans. Her rounded shoulders were so severe that she had to wear a jacket to cover her shoulders when wearing suspenders in the summer. She complained of neck and back pain every day after get off work. After practicing for two months with the "Seven Days to Correct Round Shoulders" tutorial at Station B, her trapezius muscles became more bulging with practice, and the pain became even more severe. Later, she found a rehabilitation therapist at the studio and attended 8 correction classes. Half of each class was used to relax the tight spots of the chest muscles and trapezius muscles, and the other half was spent on strengthening the middle and lower trapezius muscles. Her breathing pattern was also changed. After the 8 classes, her back pain was basically gone, and her shoulder slip was also improved a lot. She spent 3,000 yuan and said, "I saved my life." Another friend was not so lucky. During the physical examination, a personal trainer told her that her pelvic tilt was severe and that her visceral sagging would affect her fertility if she ignored it. So she suddenly spent 8,000 on 20 correction classes. After five classes, she discovered that the movements taught were exactly the same as the free online tutorials. The coach didn't even know whether she had a false pelvic tilt or a real pelvic tilt. In the end, the money was not refunded before the class was completed, and he became angry when he mentioned it.

You see, it's also a correction course. Whether it's worth it or whether it's necessary or not is not a matter of fact.

If you have experienced clear discomfort due to posture problems, such as pain in your waist after sitting for a long time, or a clicking sound in your neck when you turn your head, and you have gone to the hospital to check whether there are organic diseases such as disc herniation or bone hyperplasia, which are caused by muscle imbalance and incorrect alignment, then I sincerely recommend that you find a reliable correction class and try it. In this case, don't just follow the general tutorials on the Internet. After all, the root of the problem is really different for everyone - for the same rounded shoulders, some people have too tight chest muscles and too weak back muscles, some people have the curvature of the upper thoracic spine becoming straight, and some people are caused by breathing through the mouth for many years. I used to have pain on the inside of my knees when I was doing squats. After taking a radiograph of my knees, there was no problem. After seeing a rehabilitation practitioner for an evaluation, I found out that I was born with a collapsed arch that caused the alignment of my lower limbs to be skewed. I took 3 classes to adjust my stance and foot force-generating mode. I went home and practiced my arches for two months. Now I can’t feel anything in my knees when squatting twice my weight. I still feel that it’s money well spent.

But if you just feel that you are a little hunched over when taking photos and you don’t look good enough, you don’t feel uncomfortable at all, and you can take the time to do your own homework, then there is really no need to spend this money. Nowadays, there are a lot of high-quality free content on the Internet. The State Sports General Administration has published a special science guide on posture correction. Many certified rehabilitation practitioners will also give out basic corrective movements for free. You can practice it by yourself, pay attention to the movement standards, and you can basically see improvements in a month or two. Wouldn’t it be nice to save money and buy a better ergonomic chair? Especially the kind of class that creates anxiety for you right from the start, such as "anterior pelvic tilt can lead to infertility" and "XO-shaped legs will become paralyzed with old age". Just listen to me and turn around and leave. It's 100% like cutting leeks. Regular rehabilitation practitioners will never say such scary things.

In fact, the current fitness circle has different views on posture correction. One group is mostly fans of powerlifting and crossfit. They feel that "posture correction" is simply a false concept. As long as you have enough muscle mass, balanced strength, and no pain in daily activities, even if you stand with your chest a little or your legs a little bent, it is not a problem. The postures of many professional athletes do not meet the "standard posture" online, but there are no problems with their motor functions at all, and there is no need to correct them.； The other group is those who do exercise rehabilitation. They believe that poor posture is an external signal of muscle function imbalance. If left unchecked for a long time, compensatory pain will gradually occur. The sooner you adjust, the sooner you will feel better. There is actually nothing wrong with both of these statements. The core criterion for judgment has never been "whether the value on the physical test chart is standard or not", but whether you are comfortable or not. If you think it is okay, then it is not a problem. There is no need to be kidnapped by the "standard right-angled shoulders" and "girly backs" on the Internet to spend money.

If you really want to buy a class, don’t rush to pay for it. Take a trial class first to see if it’s reliable. The first class of a regular orthodontic class will definitely start with an assessment. They will ask you about your daily living habits, whether you have old injuries, and where you feel uncomfortable. We will take photos of your front, side and back posture, measure the mobility of each joint, and find out the root cause of your problem. If you don't know how to do it, we will take you to do stretching exercises. If the teacher comes up and says that your problem is very serious and you need to buy dozens of classes to get better, and doesn't even ask you about any pain, then you can basically pass. Also, don’t believe in the nonsense about “correcting XO-shaped legs in 7 days” or “building right-angled shoulders in 10 classes”. Your posture problems are the result of more than ten years of cross-legged work and desk work. How can you change it in a few days? Reliable teachers will tell you that class only teaches you the correct way to exert force. The remaining 90% still depends on you going home and practicing consistently, and changing your usual bad habits. Otherwise, even if you take a hundred classes, you will still lie down and cross your legs every day, which is of no use.

To put it bluntly, fitness and posture correction classes are essentially a paid knowledge service. It is no different from paying a personal trainer to teach you how to roll iron or asking a teacher to teach you how to play the guitar. There is no such thing as "must buy" or "completely useless". Whether it is worth it all depends on whether you have needs and whether you can choose a reliable person. Don't be pushed away by the anxiety created by the merchants, and don't think that you can get away with it once and for all by spending money. If you want to be comfortable and have a good-looking body, in the end, it is your daily living habits that matter.