Rehabilitation department posture correction

We will never ask you to practice shoulder opening, strapping on correction straps or cracking bones. The premise of all corrections is to eliminate pathological problems first, and then conduct personalized intervention based on your unique body structure and living habits. The ultimate goal is to restore function and eliminate pain, rather than pursuing an assembly line posture that "looks perfect."

Let’s talk about the case we just encountered last week and you will understand. A 26-year-old Internet operator girl, with rounded shoulders and a hunched head that has been stretched forward for almost five years, had previously signed up for a posture correction class at a fitness studio and practiced shoulder opening and back clamping for three months. As a result, her back pain became more and more severe, and she occasionally experienced numbness in her right hand. She thought she didn't practice hard enough, until she woke up one morning and felt dizzy and couldn't stand, so she came to the hospital. After an X-ray and physical examination, it was found that she had a mild cervical disc herniation, combined with upper cross syndrome + dislocation of the third thoracic facet joint. The shoulder-opening exercises she had practiced before were all deadlifts of soft tissues, without taking into account the dislocated joints and compressed nerves. The more she practiced, the more the compression became heavier, but it didn't hurt.

Now that we are talking about it, we have to talk about the differences between the several correction ideas currently on the market. In fact, no one is absolutely good, and each has its applicable scenarios. It is not a mistake to ignore one by one. If you only have muscle tension caused by working overtime for a week or two, without any symptoms of pain or numbness, and the bone structure is completely normal in the X-ray, it is very cost-effective to find a fitness instructor who understands anatomy to adjust the alignment. There is no need to go to the hospital. Chiropractic treatment at the orthopedic and traumatology department in a regular traditional Chinese medicine hospital is also useful. For problems such as acute thoracic facet joint dislocation and stiff neck, the pain can be relieved immediately after the reset, and the effect is immediate. However, the problem is that many people do not do follow-up muscle training after the reset. The muscles around the joints do not have the strength to hold the joints, and they will go back in less than half a month, which is equivalent to wasting their efforts. And if you already have a severe intervertebral disc herniation that compresses the spinal cord, or you have osteoporosis, misalignment of your bones may even lead to paralysis. This risk is no joke.

Many people have the biggest misunderstanding about posture correction, that is, they think "straight" is good. Two months ago, a mother brought her son who was a freshman in high school. As soon as he entered the door, he pointed at the child's back and said, "Doctor, please straighten it quickly. He is always hunched over and doesn't look good in school uniform." We took an anteroposterior and lateral radiograph of the child's entire spine, and the Cobb angle (the core measurement index of scoliosis) was measured to be 18 degrees. It belongs to idiopathic mild scoliosis. In this case, it cannot be forced to break. Instead, force breaking will destroy the compensation space of the spine itself and make the pain worse. We customized a special brace for the child, equipped with Schroth training movements, and asked him to put his schoolbag on his shoulder when he usually sits in class. When he checked again in three months, the degree of scoliosis did not increase, the back pain was cured first, and his mother finally no longer struggled with the issue of "straight or not."

To be honest, I have been in this industry for a long time and have seen too many people messing around with the so-called right-angled shoulders and swan necks. In order to develop right-angled shoulders, a programmer followed an Internet celebrity for a month of "shoulder pressing and clamping" training. In the end, the pain was so painful that he couldn't lift his arm. He came to check for subacromial impingement syndrome. It took three months to cure it. Do you think it was a mistake?

Our department has never had a unified action template for correction. The shoulders are also high and low. Some people have pelvic tilt caused by long and short legs. They need to adjust the alignment of the lower limbs first. ； Some people have overcompensation of the trapezius muscle on one side caused by carrying a shoulder bag all year round. They need to relax the tight side and then train the serratus anterior muscle on the weak side. ； Some people are afraid of exerting force after rotator cuff injury and have used the other shoulder to exert force for many years. The rotator cuff problem must be cured first before talking about anything else. Just like the cabinet in your home is crooked, you can't just bang the cabinet door. You have to first check to see if the foot pads underneath are uneven, or if the partition inside is broken. If you can't find the root cause, you will never get better if you try too hard.

And correction is really not our doctor’s business, most of it depends on you. There was a patient who worked as a designer. After two months of correction, the problem of rounded shoulders and cervical spine straightening was improved very well. However, he stayed up for a week in time to catch up with the launch of the project, lying in front of the computer for 12 hours a day. When he came back for a follow-up consultation, he returned to his original shape and said with a grimace that his money was wasted. We all laughed and said that you are not a white flower, you made it yourself. Later, we adjusted the height of his desk, taught him to stand up every 40 minutes of working and do 30 seconds of chin stretching against the wall, and asked him to hold his mobile phone up to eye level for browsing, and then the effect was stabilized.

To put it bluntly, body posture is a mirror of your lifestyle habits, not an aesthetic flaw that needs to be "corrected." As long as it doesn't cause you pain or affect your normal life, it doesn't matter if your shoulders are a little uneven or rounded. If it's really uncomfortable, go to a regular rehabilitation department for a full-dimensional evaluation. It's much more reliable than buying hundreds of yuan worth of orthopedic courses or buying a bunch of useless correction belts.