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8 Posture Correctors That Will Help You Stop Slouching
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If you’re one of the many people navigating a new home office lifestyle or spending more time at home, you may notice that your posture is suffering as a result. Maybe your body is starting to resemble a question mark due to an uncomfortable work setup or being cooped up indoors. When so much of your daily grind is spent in front of a screen or hovered over a phone, without enough breaks in between, it’s easy to develop the tendency to round and slump your shoulders (which, in turn, puts pressure on your spine).
Setting yourself up with an ergonomic workspace is a helpful first step toward promoting good posture. Your chair should be close enough to your desk so that you’re not leaning forward, and ideally your monitor is at eye level so that you’re not peering over your desk. According to the Cleveland Clinic, having good posture while sitting also means scooting your bottom all the way back in the chair, with your feet flat on the floor and your knees squared evenly with your hips.
If your habit of slouching is doing some damage, though, you may need to go a step further toward building up your core muscles (the muscles around your trunk and pelvis) and modeling good posture with a posture-correcting device. Traditional posture correctors (which are worn like a harness) give your rusty postural muscles an assist by either reminding you to sit up straight or making it easier for you to do so by holding your body in the correction position: shoulders back, in an upright position that supports the three natural curves to your spine—one at your neck (your cervical spine), another in your mid-back (your thoracic spine), and another in your lower back (your lumbar spine).
Physical therapists often recommend these devices to patients (along with recovery tools like foam rollers) to help reverse the negative effects of chronic slouching, which include chronic back pain, joint stiffness, and neck and shoulder tension. “The muscles need to be retrained in order to have the strength and endurance to hold the body with a good upright postural position,” Karena Wu, DPT, owner and clinical director of ActiveCare Physical Therapy in New York, tells SELF.
Besides finding a device that works well with your setup (think a lumbar pillow that’s the right width for your chair or posture strap that’s adjustable to your size), it should also feel comfortable. “If it’s too hard or uncomfortable, you’re likely to avoid it, and then the good posture you’re striving for is less likely to become a habit,” board-certified sports physical therapist Leada Malek, DPT, tells SELF.
To use it, either wear it for as long as the device’s instructions recommend each day or ease into it. “Start with one third or half your day, and vary which half you use it,” Malek suggests. “Sometimes people do better with using correctors toward the end of their day, since that’s when the body gets tired.”
And remember that these devices are ultimately meant to be used short-term: They should help you gain awareness of your body alignment and strengthen your muscles enough to support yourself without them. “If you recruit the postural and stabilizing muscles while wearing one, you can give the muscles a workout to remember how to be in this correct position,” says Wu. Any training you’re doing should be supported with postural strengthening and mobility exercises too.
Ready to de-slouch? Here are the posture-correcting devices physical therapists actually recommend.
Some of the most affordable, popular posture correctors are wearable options like this one. Wu notes that “every body (and back) is different” but suggests finding a posture corrector that’s easy to get into, adjustable, “fits appropriately to hold your shoulders back in space, isn’t too constricting around the shoulders or middle back, and has good quality material that won’t irritate the skin.”
Malek recommends this Qualid posture corrector, which consists of a strap around each shoulder that resists and corrects your slouching by helping to support the thoracic spine (upper back) and shoulders and allowing your muscles to adapt through long-term muscle memory. “It essentially holds your shoulders back and reduces forward head posture,” says Malek.
It’s fully adjustable and thin enough to be worn under clothing, with enough padding to prevent chafing, as well as enough flexibility for a free range of motion.
Here’s another posture device that Malek loves “because it hooks around your knees and low back with supportive padding for the lower back” to keep you upright. “Adjusting the pelvis and lower back can have a huge immediate effect on the posture up the chain, so this may be an especially efficient fix,” she adds.
There’s also the Somaz Adjustable Posture Corrector, a vest-style device that comes with added lumbar padding. It offers full back support, which Malek says may be more effective in helping accomplish full upright posture correction. It’s also flexible enough to be worn during workdays and workouts.
Available in sizes XS to XL.
Sometimes (as annoying as it may be) you just need a little reminder to sit up straight. “Electronic devices that cue someone to sit up are small, easy to use, and help recruit the mind-body connection of correcting posture throughout the day,” says Wu.
One that Malek recommends in particular is the Upright Go 2, a wireless gadget that attaches to your upper back via an adhesive strip. When you slouch, it gently vibrates as a reminder to sit upright, and it can track your progress (plus provide personal training) via a connected app. “It may work better for people with better postural strength, since there’s no extrinsic support,” says Malek.
Another simple adjustment to your workspace that can help promote better posture is a standing desk converter. “Sitting too much causes problems, but so can standing too long,” says Wu. “A standing desk converter allows for both to occur, and in both positions the user must recruit their muscles to hold a good upright position in space.” She likes Vari’s Vari-Desk, and lots of Amazon shoppers seem to agree: It’s one of Amazon’s most popular models.
Vari’s popular standing desk converter sits on top of your current desk and conveniently morph it into a standing desk using a spring-loaded boost mechanism that allows you to lift, lower, and adjust to any of 11 height settings. Its two-tier design offers plenty of room for your laptop or monitor, along with a spacious lower deck for a full-size keyboard and mouse.
Many office chairs come with built-in lumbar supports, which encourage proper alignment while sitting, but if yours doesn’t, you might want to look into adding one. In a pinch, a pillow can help, but this OPTP lumbar roll is an especially popular choice for those who spend a lot of time seated at a desk—and comes frequently recommended by PTs like Wu for people with lower back pain.
The firm, cushioned roll sits between your lumbar spine (or lower back) and the back of the chair, with a built-in strap that fastens securely to most chair backs or around your waist. “It helps maintain your neutral spine position when sitting in an office, vehicle, or plane seat, and reminds you to sit up when you start to slouch,” says Wu.
Other corrective devices, like this versatile spine corrector, can help safely align and decompress the spine after a day spent hunched over your desk. “I highly recommend the Backbridge to reverse any slouching or loss of the correct lumbar curvature," New York–based physical therapist Caitlin Belter Evans, DPT, tells SELF.
The Backbridge is a customizable back-pain treatment that involves five levels of stackable support for your back: You can start at a comfortable incline and graduate to a steeper curve if you want more stretching and extension for your back muscles. Because the levels are stackable, they can also double as a support cushion for sitting (it comes with a strap for your chair) or an exercise tool when practicing yoga.
A foam roller is one of the simplest things everybody can use to reduce or prevent posture-related pain, and Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, a California-based orthopedic and pelvic floor physical therapist, says she recommends one to almost all of her patients. “Once you have good postural mobility, developing core strength is your next move, and a foam roller allows for this progression,” Jeffcoat tells SELF.
One of the basic posture exercises her patients do is lie along the entire length of the foam roller and open their arms out to the sides. “For some, the high-density rollers are too painful to use, so I lean more toward this moderate density roller from OPTP,” she says. Thanks to its closed-cell, heat-molded EVA foam technology, OPTP’s Pro-Roller is durable and super easy to keep clean either with a disinfecting wipe or wet cloth.
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