Why Go Three Times Per Week?

By Dr. Philip Cordova

January 31, 2011


Why go three times per week? Many patients enter a chiropractor’s office just hoping they can get one “crack” and then never, ever return. It’s an interesting approach, because we do inherently know that there’s no way that will work. 

Even if you decide to take a pill, you know you will need it again every 4-6 hours or at least every day for the rest of your life. Patients that believe a pill holds the answer to their long-term back pain relief still know that they will need to take more than one.

We even know that we have to go to the gym three times per week to see a difference.

That’s the important part to understand here. When you’re dealing with muscles (as we are when dealing with the spine), we are trying to facilitate a change. You may see results from going to the gym once a week, but wouldn’t you see faster results by going more frequently?

How likely are you to give up on your weight lifting or cardio routine if you go week after week without seeing a change? Highly likely is the answer. You know that your muscles have to be bombarded, coaxed, and pushed to see a dramatic change and the people that see the greatest change go even more often.

three times per week

How does three times per week work in a chiropractic treatment plan?

It’s the same concept as going to the gym — we need the muscles to change. When a vertebra moves out of its normal position, especially when it’s been like that for a long time, the muscles adapt and change. 

Muscles on one side of the bone become shorter and tighter. Muscles on the other side become longer and weaker. When we first start to move the bone back into its original position, the short side keeps pulling it back to the same side, because it’s used to it being just like that. 

After awhile, the muscle starts to adapt to the correct position of the vertebra and it doesn’t pull it back out of alignment quite so easily. That’s why three times per week is so important at the beginning of a chiropractic care plan and why you don’t have to keep doing it as frequently forever. 

Your body adapts to the new position.

Whether you’ve decided to add in spinal decompression therapy, do more posture exercises, or just be consistent with a chiropractic care plan, the more you do the better. Patients that only need to come in on a monthly basis are not trying to fix a long-term problem. 

Monthly care is to “undo” the wear and tear that’s been put on the body from long hours sitting at the computer, lack of stretching or exercise, and bad posture. Since it’s unlikely you will stop doing any of those activities anytime soon, you need to do maintenance to keep things where you want them to be.

Going to the gym more frequently gets you results and then you can eventually just maintain what you’ve got. If you don’t go enough, you’ll start to see your body get weaker and less muscular. Go more often again and the results will once again return. 

So why 3 times per week?

We want you to get better and we want that change to last as long as possible. That’s it. That’s the key and the secret. Patients that follow those recommendations at the beginning of care tend to do really well. 

Those that feel like it’s too much and don’t come in except when they’re in pain will never see the same kind of lasting results that those patients that followed the three times per week program have followed. What kind of results do you want to get?

Dr. Philip Cordova

About the author

Dr. Philip Cordova is a chiropractor in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and decided to become a chiropractor after hurting his back as a teenager and getting help from chiropractic care. He is speaker on health & posture. Click Here To Read His Full Bio

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