What you need to know about your posture and devices that aim to fix it ·

04 Aug 2024, 00:00

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I have always been tall, but I have never been known for my posture. As early as middle school, one of my basketball and volleyball coaches began regularly correcting my posture. She would poke me in the back during after-school practices to nudge me into standing up straight.

Decades later, not much has changed. Without enlisting my old coach to follow me around poking me in the back, I just can’t remember to pay attention to my posture.

There are dozens of products aimed at helping people like me. Posture correctors — whether analog braces worn under clothes or wearable devices from start-up companies — purport to train you to have a more aligned and upright posture. Many also claim to help relieve the extremely common ailment of back pain. But do posture-correcting devices really do any good?

Overall, the evidence is thin. “Generally, we think of those as gimmicks,” says Scott Beadnell, a physical therapist with Oregon Health & Science University.

Some individuals may find the devices help in some way or enjoy using them. But achieving one “correct” posture might not even be necessary when it comes to keeping yourself comfortable and pain-free at work. Movement and variety are more important goals, experts say.

What are posture correctors?

Most posture-correcting devices tend to be some variation on a brace, bra or shirt that is meant to pull your shoulders, neck and back into a more straightened-up alignment. These may claim to retrain your muscle memory, to help you feel more energized or to relieve pain caused by bad posture. Some even say they can help with spinal curvature conditions such as scoliosis.

Another group of posture correctors are wearable electronic devices that detect non-upright posture and use some form of biofeedback — generally vibration — to remind you to straighten up.

Is there any evidence they work?

Not a lot. One 2019 review, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain, collected results from six studies that assessed posture-correcting shirts. The researchers found evidence suggesting that posture-correcting shirts do change a person’s posture, might help alleviate pain and discomfort, and even increase energy levels and productivity. But the studies had some big problems, says J.P. Caneiro, a physiotherapist and research fellow at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and one of the review’s authors.

For one, the six studies could not adequately assess how well posture correctors alleviated pain because they used participants who were not in pain.

The scientists determined that the quality of the research on posture-correcting shirts was generally low. The takeaway? There’s not enough good evidence to support recommending posture-correcting shirts, Caneiro says, “especially as a management strategy for musculoskeletal pain.”

The evidence is thin with electronic devices, too.

Upright, which makes the wearable Upright Go, cites just one peer-reviewed study showing a benefit from its device. But the study, which was in a small group of young people, didn’t assess pain or employ any objective measurements of posture. (Upright did not respond to a request from Consumer Reports for a comment.)

Several experts I spoke with noted that a lack of evidence doesn’t mean these devices have been proved to be useless for everyone — just that scientists haven’t yet been able to show they’re helpful for many people.

Still, some individuals might benefit. You might find, for example, that a posture brace or a wearable provides a helpful reminder to try to keep your spine in a neutral position while you’re working at your desk, says Mayur Jivanjee, a musculoskeletal and vestibular physiotherapist based in Melbourne, Australia.

Are posture correctors recommended for anyone?

According to the research, yes: There is one area in which posture-correcting braces are well supported by evidence — in children with scoliosis.

For kids who are still growing, whose spines aren’t fully mature, there’s solid evidence that using a corrective brace can help reduce the risk of spinal curvature getting worse, according to the Scoliosis Research Society. Generally, people work with medical professionals to find the right type and fit for such a brace. (They’re not necessarily the same ones consumers can get online.)

Once a person has stopped growing, however, bracing is no longer recommended as a treatment for scoliosis, since it won’t stop spinal curvature from getting worse, according to Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate, a decision-making tool for physicians.

Are there potential downsides to trying a posture corrector?

Yes. The cost of these devices is one. You might be spending money without much guarantee of benefit.

Additionally, Jivanjee notes it’s possible that a brace might encourage extremes of position, which is why he wouldn’t recommend wearing one all day or even for more than an hour or two at a time.

Eugene Wai, a spine surgeon and associate professor in orthopedic surgery at the University of Ottawa, says he worries about another type of harm, at least with respect to physical posture braces. For people struggling with back pain, muscle weakness and strain may be a more relevant problem than simply their posture. With a brace, Wai says, “The danger is that people would maybe develop dependence on it, and then actually that might lead to worsening of the weakness.” More weakness, he says, might exacerbate the back pain, rather than help.

Does bad posture cause back pain?

This is an important question behind some of the promise of posture correctors, and the answer is that no one knows for sure.

“I don’t think we have good evidence about bad posture leading to chronic back pain,” Wai says. He co-wrote a 2010 study in the Spine Journal that reviewed existing studies on workers who must adopt awkward postures at work (an example: sewer cleaners in Denmark who had to hunch over to work in narrow sewer tunnels). The researchers found little evidence to back up the idea that awkward postures cause back pain.

But other analyses — also synthesizing existing studies — have found the opposite. For example, a 2012 analysis in the American Journal of Public Health did find that people whose work required nonneutral back postures (along with other types of exertion, such as lifting) were more likely to experience low back pain.

In 2020, researchers writing in the Journal of Biomechanics attempted to pull together the results from multiple analyses of the evidence on posture and physical exertion. The takeaway? The conflicting findings mean that there’s no consensus about the extent to which postures and other physical factors (sitting, standing, lifting, bending, twisting and more) contribute to the development of back pain.

Back pain is complicated and not fully understood, says Dino Samartzis, an associate professor in orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical College in Chicago. He points out that recent evidence shows factors such as genetics, demographics, socioeconomics and even the microbiome can also potentially influence a person’s risk of developing pain.

Do you really need to correct your posture?

Not necessarily. The underlying assumption of posture-correcting devices — that there might be one “correct” posture for everyone — may not be so clear-cut.

For some providers, like Jivanjee, the dichotomy between good and bad posture isn’t particularly useful. He recommends different postures or movements to different people, “based on their work pattern, their body dimensions and their injury history,” he says.

Several experts emphasized this same point: that the right posture for you might not look like what it looks like for someone else, or like what you think of as “good” posture generally. Beadnell explains that, yes, some people who experience back pain might benefit from adopting less of a slouched posture when sitting at their desk, for example.

But some folks might be better off relaxing a bit. “There are people that sit really upright or have what we would think of as really good posture,” he says. “And usually these are people that were either in the military or had dance training, like ballet especially, or gymnastics, when they really overcorrect their posture. And for them being in a more slouched position is actually a much better position.”

There’s one other potential benefit to adopting a more upright posture, according to some research, and it has to do with your mood. Evidence shows that slumped or stooped postures can indicate a poor mood, and can even be used to help diagnose depression. Some research suggests that the relationship may also run in the opposite direction — that adopting more upright postures might actually help improve mood.

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What you need to know about your posture and devices that aim to fix it