How often does posture correction occur?

In fact, there is no universal standard answer. Adjustment of mild to moderate daily poor posture 3-4 times a week is enough. If there is pathological discomfort or obvious deviation of the spine/joints, adjustments may be required 5-6 times a week or even as directed by the doctor in the initial stage. During the maintenance phase, it can be gradually reduced to 1-2 times a week.

There is a lot of controversy in the industry and on the Internet about this issue. Some people say that you must practice every day to establish correct muscle memory, while others say that practicing too hard can easily cause muscle compensation and cause new strains. Both statements actually have applicable scenarios, and there is no way to say who is right and who is wrong. I met a little girl who was doing graphic design before. She believed in the "10-minute daily posture correction check-in" on the Internet and practiced shoulder opening exercises every day. As a result, after half a month, her trapezius muscles became more and more painful with the training, and it was difficult to raise her arms. When I came to evaluate her, I found that her thoracic spine mobility was poor and she was forced to break her shoulders. When exercising her shoulders, she relied entirely on the upper trapezius muscles to compensate for the force. Too high a frequency only made the weak muscles more tense. Later, the frequency was adjusted to three times a week. Before each exercise, she spent 10 minutes to loosen the fascia around her thoracic spine and shoulders. Within three weeks, her shoulder pain disappeared, and her rounded shoulder problem also improved a lot.

Speaking of posture correction, the logic is similar to that of maintaining a car. If you only drive it for daily commuting and have no major problems, you can just do a small maintenance on a regular basis. There is no need to dismantle parts and inspect them every day.； If a clear fault such as deviation or abnormal noise has occurred, it must be inspected several times in a row to solve the problem and then return to the frequency of regular maintenance. For example, I used to take care of a courier who runs warehouses all year round. Because he is used to carrying goods on one side, the height difference between the high and low shoulders is almost 2cm. There has been a slight shoulder impact, and it hurts when he raises his hand. In the early stage, he was given adjustments 6 times a week. First, he loosened the deep adhesion muscles and removed the misplaced ones. The small joints of the shoulder joints were adjusted back into position. After two weeks, the pain completely disappeared, so the frequency was reduced to 3 times a week, and the muscle balance on both sides was trained specifically. After more than a month, the upper and lower shoulders were basically level. After that, I spent an hour a week doing maintenance adjustments. It has not happened again for more than half a year.

At this point, someone may ask, since I don’t have obvious pain, and I don’t know if my posture problem is serious, how can I judge whether the frequency is appropriate? In fact, the simplest criterion is to see how you feel after the exercise. If your shoulders, back, and trunk feel relaxed after the exercise, and there are no inexplicable soreness the next day, then the current frequency is appropriate. ； If you feel pain in a certain part after practicing, or even feel stiff when you wake up the next day, either the movements are not done correctly and the force is exerted incorrectly, or the frequency is too high and the muscles cannot bear it, so you need to stop and adjust in time.

You really don’t need to worry too much about whether the frequency is enough. Many people are anxious at first and give up after practicing hard every day for half a month without seeing any results. On the contrary, those who practice slowly three or four times a week and remember not to slump when sitting and not tilt their center of gravity when standing will have their posture corrected a lot in two or three months. After all, the wrong posture is accumulated over many years, and there is no need to catch up on the three to five days of adjustment.