How to correct posture

Posture correction cannot be achieved simply by stiffening postures and vigorously practicing Internet celebrity movements. The core is to identify the root cause of the problem first, and then put adjustment of daily habits first, coupled with appropriate functional training. Indiscriminate correction may easily lead to sports injuries.

In the past few years, there has been a lot of debate on the Internet about posture correction. One group says that as long as you remind yourself to raise your head and chest, you can adjust it back in two months. The other group says that you must go to the gym to strengthen your muscles and strengthen your weak muscles. In fact, neither side has grasped the essence. A while ago, I helped an operations girl from the same company adjust her rounded shoulders. In order to look good in a small skirt, she followed the trend and stood against the wall for 20 minutes every day. After standing for almost a month, her rounded shoulders did not heal, but the pain made her unable to sleep at night. When I went to the hospital for a checkup, I found out that in order to stick to the wall, she deliberately pushed her neck back. The curvature of her cervical vertebrae was straightened, and this directly compressed the soft tissue. Later, I first asked her to take a full-length spine radiograph to rule out pathological scoliosis and bone problems. I found that she always leaned forward when typing on the keyboard, and her chest muscles were tight. The muscles in her middle and lower back were not used all year round. In addition, she always crossed her legs, and her pelvis rotated a bit, so her upper body naturally followed.

To put it bluntly, posture problems are like setting up a tent outdoors. The drawstrings on both sides are our muscles. If one side is too tight for a long time, and the other side is too loose for a long time, the tent will naturally tilt to the tighter side. If you forcefully pull the tent fabric to straighten it, it will have to tilt back after a while, which will easily tear the fabric. You have to loosen the tension on the tight side first, and then build up the strength on the loose side. When the tension on both sides is balanced, the skeleton will naturally return to alignment.

Let’s just say that many people always think about pushing out their chest and tightening their abdomen when they go to work. After ten minutes of stretching, they will be exhausted. Once they collapse, they will hold on harder than before. There is really no need to be so deliberate. You put a pillow behind your waist that fits the curvature of your lumbar spine, raise your computer so that the top edge of the screen is at eye level, and put a footrest on it if your feet cannot reach the floor. You don't have to force yourself, your body will naturally be in a neutral position, and it won't be too uncomfortable even if you sit for an afternoon.

Nowadays, many people are superstitious that bone setting can correct the posture with one click. This matter really depends on the situation. If you have a stiff neck occasionally or a small joint disorder caused by moving something, going to the rehabilitation department of a regular hospital for bone setting can indeed quickly push back the misaligned parts. Yes, but if the muscle tension is imbalanced due to bad habits over the years, even if you do bone correction to push the bones back, the muscle tension will still be skewed, and it will return to its original shape within three days. Frequent bone correction will loosen the ligaments around the joint, making the stability worse.

I myself had mild anterior pelvic tilt in the past two years, and my back was sore after standing for a long time. I followed the trend and practiced glute bridge for half a month, and the pain in my waist became more and more painful as I practiced. Later I realized that I wear high heels all year round, and my hip flexors are as tight as a stretched rubber band. Every time I do glute bridge, I rely on my waist for strength, and my hips are not trained at all. Later, I rolled for 5 minutes every day to relax my iliopsoas muscles, and then did 15 clam poses to activate my gluteus medius muscles. I rarely wore high heels larger than 5cm. Within two weeks, the problem of backache after standing for a long time disappeared, and the previously asymmetrical waist lines on both sides were even.

If you really want to correct your posture, don’t just follow Internet celebrity videos and practice blindly. If you already have obvious pain, or the crookedness is severe, go to the rehabilitation department of a regular hospital to take a picture first to rule out pathological problems, and then find a reliable rehabilitation practitioner for evaluation. It is much better than messing around on your own. After all, our bodies are not building blocks, and if you break them incorrectly, you can’t just re-stack them.