When you begin Chiropractic care, usually an intense initial period of adjustments is needed to begin the process of returning proper motion to spinal joints. Your muscles, joints and nerves have an amazing memory, and getting your body to learn how to move properly takes time. It is said you need to do something for 21 days before it becomes a habit. Try changing your posture and you will notice that very quickly, you will find yourself slouching or not standing straight, without being aware. Spinal joints are just the same. In the beginning, spinal joints will go back to their ‘stuck’ position shortly after being adjusted. Thus in the beginning you may only experience short term relief between adjustments.
When your joints keep moving each day (or remain subluxation free), now is the time to rejoice and reduce the frequency of care as your body is learning, through adjustments, and lifestyle changes to keep your spinal joints moving properly.
Try this: pick a habit that you do daily that you know causes spinal joints to become tight (eg, cradling the phone when talking, slouching, not standing evenly on both legs, etc) and try to change it by keep good postural habits. Soon you will realize just how difficult it is to change those ‘in grained’ habits.
Just like changing the position of teeth can take years (and that’s with braces on 24 hours a day!), so can changing the position and motion of spinal joints.
Chiropractic adjustments restore proper motion to joints that are not moving properly and likely haven’t been moving properly, possibly, for years. In the beginning regular, and frequent adjustments are needed to help your body learn ‘healthy spinal movements.’ It is also important to follow your Chiropractor’s advice regarding changing sleeping positions, posture, work setup, etc to help to minimize the stresses on your spine to ensure healing will occur as fast as possible.