• ||||

Do Posture Vests Really Work?

Published On: September 2, 2024By Tags: , , , , , ,

I often have patients asking if they should buy a posture vest to improve their posture and prevent slumping. My simple answer is NO. It’s not because I want them to spend their money elsewhere, but because I don’t believe in the fundamental principles of how they work. While the vest may hold your upper body in a more upright position while you wear it, once you take it off, the same structural issues causing your body to slump remain. Moreover, these vests can weaken your back muscles as they are not required to work as hard.

The primary reason I advise against them is that they can cause problems. Consider that your spine lacks muscles that pull vertebrae directly backward. Although muscles run up and down your spine (extensors), there are none that pull directly back. If a vertebra is pulled or pushed forward, it can become stuck, which often leads to slumping.

A posture vest aims to pull the shoulders back, but in doing so, it must push something forward – simple mechanics. Pushing bones in the spine forward is problematic because your body cannot self-correct this. You may end up creating additional problems for your spine or transferring the issue to another part of your body.

A better way to address postural issues such as slumping is to have the vertebrae in your spine adjusted into a more stable position so your body naturally maintains an upright posture.

This is what we do with Advanced Biostructural Correction™.

Capture Post to PDF — Button Only

About the Author: Robert Spratley

I started my working life in the IT industry. Sitting long hours initially didn’t bother me. I was young and back pain wasn’t a thing in your 20s – right?! Then in my late 20s I injured my back carrying a piano. Although I didn’t have any pain immediately, over the coming days and weeks, my back started to hurt and I was getting pain down my right leg. I saw a physiotherapist on my GP’s referral and although it helped it didn’t resolve the pain for long. A friend of mine suggested seeing a chiropractor. This did help – and ignited an interest in how and why it helped as well as why I was in pain. Subsequently, I started my training to become a chiropractor and 5 years later qualified in 2013. As all new chiropractors do, I tested different techniques to see what seemed to work the best for me and my patients. During my first year of practice, I went to a seminar in Advanced Biostructural Correction (ABC). This turned out to be quite a radical approach to why bodies go wrong and how to fix them. The word ‘why‘ is important here because most techniques focus on looking at what is out of alignment in the skeleton and how to adjust it. But what if the misalignment is due to some other underlying problem that the body cannot fix? And how did this problem occur? This is where ABC shed light and provided a reliable and consistent template to fix structural body problems. In practical terms, I found that being treated with the ABC technique stabilised my body allowing my muscles to relax rather than constantly fighting against gravity to hold me upright. Previous techniques offered relief for a while by freeing up joints but then the tension and pain returned – because my body was still unstable. Furthermore, my body had formed layer upon layer of compensations to try and deal with the underlying issues that have taken time to unravel. These include fatigue, headaches, knee pain and shoulder pain. After receiving regular ABC treatment for almost a year, my symptoms were much improved. The goal of ABC is to have an ‘unawareness’ of your body. Most of us, if we stand still for a moment and focus on our body will realise that something hurts or doesn’t feel right. This is because it isn’t right. Pain often becomes like a background noise you get accustomed to and forget what silence sounds like. This is the aim with Advanced Biostructural Correction. Contact Details Email: info@rebalancechiropractic.co.uk Website Facebook Instagram X

you might also like