Paris There is really no unified standard answer. It all depends on your own situation and whether the personal trainer you meet is reliable. Some people spend thousands of dollars to solve the shoulder and back pain that has been bothering them for several years, while others spend tens of thousands of dollars to pay the IQ tax. It is not an exaggeration at all.
There was a back-end developer at the gym I used to go to. He was 27 years old. He stretched his head forward 4 centimeters. After sitting for two hours, his shoulders and back became so stiff that he couldn’t move. He also often suffered from migraines. At first, he practiced following the correction videos on the Internet for more than three months. The more he practiced, the thicker his trapezius muscles became, and the pain became more frequent. Later, he found a coach at the gym who specializes in posture correction. The first evaluation found that he did not only have upper crossed syndrome. , and the unilateral wing-shaped scapula caused by long-term keyboarding with one hand. When I practiced before, I exerted all the force to compensate. The middle and lower trapezius muscles and serratus anterior muscles that should have been activated did not exert any force at all. They were all carried by the upper trapezius muscles. The more I practiced, the more painful it became. Later, I followed the coach to practice three times a week, first to loosen the tense muscles, and then slowly find the feeling of force on the weak side. In just over two months, I have almost no migraines, and my head has been extended by almost two centimeters. He himself said that the money spent was much better than the bunch of massagers he bought before.
But this cannot be said to death. I have also encountered cases where there was absolutely no need to retaliate. Last year, I had a distant cousin who was just a freshman in college. She became anxious after watching short videos. She had fake wide hips and XO-shaped legs, so she had to sign up for a posture correction class worth more than 10,000 yuan. I asked her to take a standing photo first to show to a familiar coach. In fact, she had accumulated some fat in her crotch after sitting for a long time, and her leg shape was within the normal range. There were no functional problems at all, let alone structural deformation. I advised her not to spend money recklessly, to cross her legs less often, to spend twenty minutes a day running, and to control the frequency of drinking milk tea. Three months later, she dubiously followed the instructions. By the time we met again during the summer vacation, the so-called "fake hip width" had almost disappeared, and her legs looked much straighter. She was afraid that she had almost paid the IQ tax.
In fact, many people struggle with this issue because they essentially don’t understand where their situation is. If you only feel shoulder pain from time to time, and when you look in the mirror, you just nod forward, stretch your shoulders, and round your shoulders, and there is no persistent pain, you should pay more attention to your sitting posture. After sitting for forty minutes, stand up and move for two minutes. Instead of scrolling on your phone on the sofa, read some reliable science and practice a few simple activation movements, and you will be able to adjust it slowly. There is really no need to spend a lot of money to find a personal trainer. But if you already have persistent shoulder, neck, and low back pain, and it doesn’t get better after a month or two of practicing on your own, but it becomes even worse, or you have obvious problems such as high and low shoulders, long and short legs, and winged shoulder blades. Then find a reliable personal trainer to make a comprehensive assessment and make targeted adjustments, which will save you time and suffer less than trying to fumble on your own.
Of course, there is a major premise that must be understood clearly. If your scoliosis has been found to be more than 20 degrees in the X-ray, or you already have symptoms of nerve compression, then don’t seek a personal trainer. Go to the hospital to see an orthopedic or rehabilitation doctor first. Personal trainers can only adjust functional bad posture, but they cannot solve structural problems, so don’t delay treatment.
To put it bluntly, it's like learning to drive from an instructor. If you only occasionally drive in a place where no one is around, you can get by with an experienced driver. If you want to pass the driver's license exam and develop good habits that don't violate the rules, find a reliable instructor. You will definitely avoid detours if you practice, but if you meet a personal trainer who has never driven a car for a few years and promises you to "cure your XO leg in a month", you'd better run away. It's a trivial matter to waste money, but it's not worth the loss if you get injured while practicing.
