Posture Trainer #1: Backroll Posture
First we test a posture trainer. You should be able to wear it anywhere – whether running or at your desk. Putting it on is also easy: Simply put it on like a backpack and then adjust it with the attached Velcro fasteners so that you can hardly feel it anymore.
The manufacturer states that the gadget is intended to strengthen your own postural muscles. But we notice: Pulling back the posture trainer leads to painful neck tension.
Tobias Renkawitz from the Orthopedic University Hospital Heidelberg explains: “It may be that some people feel forced into a forced position. And then it is actually the case that muscular tension can occur. And then pain occurs, and that's not helpful. Active back training is actually much more important than such static aids.”
The company responds to this assessment: “The Blackroll Posture is in no way intended to force the wearer into a forced position. (…) By constantly straightening up, the wearer trains his or her own postural muscles and doesn’t just stay in a forward-bent position all the time.”
Posture Trainer #2: Upright Technologies
Test device number two is a small box that you stick between your shoulders. It's supposed to work like this: A sensor determines whether the wearer is sitting crooked. If so, the small device vibrates - at least in theory.
Although the device vibrates pleasantly lightly and is barely noticeable in the neck, it only triggers the “alarm” when the back posture is very bent. The gadget does not register minor incorrect posture, such as the so-called cell phone neck.
Not surprising for Renkawitz, because such devices only focus on a very small point. As long as there is no incorrect posture to be measured here, the vibration will not disappear. Furthermore, according to the orthopedist, there is no evidence known to him that would prove the effectiveness of such aids. We confront the manufacturer Upright Technologies with this assessment, but we do not receive an answer.
Our conclusion:
In our test, the devices did not lead to improved postures so much as they caused pain. The aim of the gadgets is to maintain a consistently upright posture - but the back wants to move as dynamically as possible in order to stay healthy.
Source:
SWR Marktcheck / Doc Fisher / Author: Scherbel, Heike
Already read? Vibrations for the muscles: massage guns in a fact check
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