Do posture correction belts really work?

It’s really not that I’m being ambiguous. Whether this thing is useful or not depends on how you use it and what you use it for. A while ago, I helped my friends in the fitness circle to evaluate seven or eight different price ranges of correction belts. I also went to two free community science clinics with a familiar fellow from the rehabilitation department. I have seen too many people who go to extremes, both those who step into traps and those who think they have found treasures.

Most of the people who find it useful are office workers and students who sit for long periods of time and only occasionally have chest hunchback and sore shoulders and necks. Just like my neighbor's little girl who is in the second year of high school. She used to lie on the table every day doing homework and her back was as big as a shrimp. After sitting for two hours, she complained of shoulder and neck pain and had to rub it for a long time. After listening to my suggestion, she wore it for one and a half hours every night during self-study. After two months, she could sit upright without being reminded by her parents, and the number of pains was reduced by more than half. In fact, the reason is very simple. After wearing it, the strap will give your shoulders a gentle pull back, which is equivalent to putting a "reminder" on your muscles, preventing you from unconsciously squeezing your chest forward and stretching forward. It can naturally reduce the extra pressure caused by bad posture on your shoulders, neck, and waist. Short-term use can indeed relieve discomfort, and can also help establish initial posture habits.

But why are so many people calling it an IQ tax? Last month, I met a girl in her 20s at the clinic of my senior brother. I heard from an internet celebrity that wearing a corrective belt for three months can cure round shoulders and hunchback, and can even lengthen the neck to make her taller. She really wore it from morning to night every day and couldn't bear to take it off even to sleep. She insisted on it for almost four months. After taking it off, she couldn't even stand straight naturally. Her core and back muscles were so soft that she couldn't work hard at all. After a check, she already had a slight muscle strain. The senior brother said that she completely used the correction belt as a "crutching stick". She relied on the belt to maintain her posture throughout the whole process. Her muscles that were supposed to exert force to maintain her posture were relaxed and fishy throughout the process. As time went by, they would naturally deteriorate, and her posture, which was not a problem at first, became worse and worse.

To put it bluntly, this thing is just an auxiliary tool, just like the knee pads you wear for running or the ankle pads you wear for sprained feet. It cannot exercise muscles for you, and it is impossible to correct problems that have already had structural lesions, such as scoliosis exceeding 15 degrees and severe intervertebral disc herniation. In this case, wearing it blindly is not only useless, but may also aggravate the symptoms due to improper force. If you just sit for a long time and want to find something to remind you not to hunch your back, just wear it for 1 to 3 hours a day. Don't completely slump on the strap when wearing it. Try to follow the direction of the tension to actively maintain your posture and slowly develop muscle memory. Then it is indeed a very cost-effective gadget. ； If you expect that wearing it will solve all your posture problems once and for all and make you straighter while lying down, then I really advise you not to waste your money.