|
If you have spent any time searching for ways to improve your posture online, you have almost certainly come across a number of posture braces that claim to be able to help solve your bad posture. In today’s culture, people are always looking for the newest and easiest way to fix our problems. But do these devices really work?  When it comes to posture braces, most products claim to improve posture by pulling your shoulders back. Although forward rounding shoulders are indeed a sign of bad posture, they are not the only contributing factor. Poor posture usually consists of a combination of factors including forward head position, rounded shoulders and pelvic alignment. A posture brace usually only affects the shoulders, only one component of bad posture.
While a posture brace may help bring your shoulders back, it doesn’t strengthen the muscles in the back of the neck or upper back. So while it may help while it is on, when you take it off your shoulders will likely go right back to their earlier position. Although the brace may help stretch out the muscles of your chest, it doesn’t help with arguably the most important factor in posture correction, which is strengthening your "anti-gravity" or postural muscles that will help you maintain better posture in the longer term. The majority of postural problems, or malalignments that we see are due to muscular imbalances. That is, certain muscle groups are tight or overworked, where other muscles are overstretched and weak. So that means we need both stretching and strengthening exercises to improve, not just one or the other. Preferably, we do exercises specifically targeting the muscle groups that fall into the tight or weak categories in our own body, not just generic advice we find on the internet. So the initial question of should I wear a posture brace? It can help alleviate posture related pain while you have to be in a position to complete a task or your work, such as sitting at a desk for long periods. But a brace will never correct your posture by itself, as it can't help you strengthen the muscles that need it. In fact, wearing any brace too much can have the opposite effect and weaken your muscles, which you really don't want! Any posture improvement program should begin with a professional posture analysis to expose where your own particular issues are, which then leads to a targeted stretching and strengthening program to alleviate your muscle imbalances. A posture brace by itself just can't do this.
0 Comments
Better Posture Perth has upgraded its posture analysis software. While PosturePro served us well for many years, it is now a little outdated and has been surpassed by a growing number of offerings that have come onto the market in this space. In keeping with our philosophy of bringing you the best posture analysis service possible and after extensive research, we bring you PostureScreen. Powerful, professional and versatile. PostureScreen is the most popular and fastest growing posture analysis examination software currently on the market.  With a number of research articles published from 2016 up to 2021 vouching for the validilty and reliability of PostureScreen, we are confident we can bring you world leading posture analysis in our clinics.
With PostureScreen, we can analyse 1, 2 or 4 pictures of your standing posture, depending on the level of detail required. We can also analyse your sitting posture and help evaluate your office or work from home environments. We can also do a movement analysis using a short video of you performing a squat if you desire. Following an assessment, we can provide you with a detailed report of your postural alignment, either emailed to you for easy reference, or in a printed format if your assessment was done in our clinic. After you’ve come for more than one assessment we can give you a side by side comparison of your before and after (corrective exercise program) posture to easily show your improvements, as well as a posture trend report. Of course, the idea is to improve your posture, your spinal alignment and your overall health, appearance and performance. So each PostureScreen analysis shows us exactly how we need to work with you specifically, based on your pictures. This leads to an individualised home exercise program for you to do, so you can have total confidence that the exercises you are doing are exactly what you need, right now. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT OVER 4.1 MILLION CLIENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ASSESSED WITH THIS MODERN SOFTWARE AROUND THE WORLD. |