I’ve had poor posture most of my life. I slouch most of the time. A few days ago I saw a these items local Grocery Outlet. Would any of those actually help me sit and stand up straight, or would I just be wasting my money?
Short answer? A waste of your money.
Get your doctor to refer you to a physical therapist who can evaluate your posture and work with you to improve. Elastic and Velcro from the store isn’t going to help.
To be honest I was really considering buying one of those, so thank you for helping me save my money.
They might help some people, but you need a thorough evaluation from a professional to find out what is going on in your case. It may turn out you can benefit from them in some way, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I read somewhere, long ago, that our shoes play a large part in our posture; those comfortable old sneakers might be contributing to your slouchiness.
This. Something as simple as orthopedic shoe inserts can adjust your posture and relieve stress and back pain. Having worked in an office environment for 30+ years, mostly sitting at a desk, and not getting adequate exercise, caused me terrible back pain that was only relieved by… what for it… sitting. This vicious cycle just made things worse.
After I retired I talked to my PCP and he suggested walking every day and now I walk 10-12 miles a day. My back no longer hurts when I am standing or sitting. I also took up bowling which forces me to stretch my back muscles. The point is that some shoe inserts, physical therapy, and routine exercise may be all you need, but only a medical professional will be able to ascertain that.
Frankly, I think those type of “appliances” can do more harm than good – You strap on the big old back brace and think Now I can tackle that tree out back; the first whack with the axe and you’re bed-ridden for six weeks.
The ones I wore when I drove for a beverage distributor and a courier service would dig into your ribs and hips unless you sat up straight and watched your posture.
The elastic pull straps (velcro) did feel a bit like a weight-lifting belt when tightened but you still needed good lifting form.
Has the question been answered factually? Because I’ve got a kinda-joking-kinda-serious reply: Forget the strap-ons and start by changing your username to Somebody.
A doctor’s advice would actually be the best place to start.
^ Sorry, you’re Nobody ‘til Somebody loves you.
Why do you care about your posture? Is it discomfort or is it appearance? Also what exactly is wrong with your posture?
If poor posture is causing pain, physical therapy and other forms of exercise. I’ve had good luck with yoga, Pilates, core abdominal work, and heavy weight lifting with a coach. Squats with a huge barbell and similar. If you look at weight lifters, the best ones have really straight posture.
If you’ve got spinal or skeletal deformities, even small asymmetries can lead to issues. If you’ve gained weight during COVID (me: 20 lbs) that can also exacerbate. Pay attention to all your daily ergonomics. Shoes, as someone said earlier.
Physical therapists are not all created equal. I had to go for hip replacement rehab and some PTs were great at analyzing my stance and my gait, others were stupid as rocks. The dumbest one was the one with a Ph.D. in PT. Go figure. The best PTs I had were those who shared my athletic interests and we could talk yoga, martial arts, etc.
Of the gadgets you showed above, I’ve had a chiro suggest the shoulder one, but you know what, it was a waste of money. I’ve seen warehouse workers who have to lift a lot wear the belt. They’re not doing it to fix their posture, they’re using it for reinforcement and maybe injury prevention.
I know you were looking for a quick fix by buying one of those gadgets but really, fixing posture and taking care of your body is a lifelong endeavor.
IANAD / IANAPT
Bad posture is the result of doing things in a certain way. The human body is designed to morph into the posture that it finds most useful for what you are doing regularly. If you wear a tight corset, your midsection will slowly shrink and take that form; if you move around in a wheelchair all day and don’t use your legs, your leg muscles will atrophy and disappear; and so on.
My expectation would be that a physical therapist is - maybe more subtly than they should - going to tell you to do things in a better way: Sit up straighter, sit less often, and don’t look down so much.
For sitting up straighter, a good start is to get a chair with no back. I have one of these:
That said, there’s nothing to stop you from slouching on such a chair. You still need to focus on sitting upright.
To help with that, it’s important to have any screens (if you’re looking at screens all day) that you look at be at eye level when you’re sitting upright. If your gaze is downward or the screen is lower than your eye level then you’re going to slouch and curl forward.
The other important thing is to not just sit. You should stand for at least 15 minutes of every hour. (And, when you’re sitting with a backless chair with not much cushioning, that is a easier task.) That might require that you get a standing desk, which can easily switch between the two positions.
The final thing is to have a good stretching routine for your neck and shoulders. If you can get a large band and perform face pulls a few times a day, that’s going to help your shoulders to learn to go back and stay back.
One important thing for improvement is having measurability. It lets you determine what needs the most focus and it lets you see whether you’re progressing (over the course of a few months). If you’re not progressing then, however good you think your routine is, it isn’t.
But do note that building muscles and moving the positions of the bones in your shoulders and neck into new places is going to be a process of months and years of consistent discipline. Measuring progress is something that you do a few times a year, not after a week.
Buckle in for the long haul.
Thanks for the extra advice. As for why I want to improve my posture, I feel that going into reasons could go into IMHO territory.