Back brace for back pain?

Have your been considering a posture brace?

A few patients have recently asked me whether it would be worthwhile to buy a postural brace.  You know, those straps that pull back your shoulders, helping your with your upper body posture.

Here’s an example.

When assessing how suitable these are, you want to consider both the short term and the longer term.  Find out if it’s something I recommend in the video below.

Back Brace Video

Source: Youtube.com

Posture Matters

Many of us sit for very long periods with bad posture. Maybe you are in front of the computer for a long period of time. Maybe you are in your car for long hours commuting or maybe you spend a lot of time on your phone or tablet.

These positions can pull your head and shoulders forward, causing you to slump.

Stay in this position long enough, you might find your body becomes used to it and stays that way. Your mum may have told you when you were younger, ‘Stand up tall, shoulders back’. As annoying as this advice may have been at the time, she was right?

But should you use a posture brace to ‘cheat’ your way into good posture?

Before we answer that question, let’s be more clear on what good posture is.

When looking at your body from the front or back, you ideally want your head level (not tilting left or right), shoulders level and hips level. If they are not level, it is possible you have scoliosis.

Correct posture of someone when looking side on should have three gentle curves. It should curve forward in the lower back, backwards in the mid back and gently forwards in the neck. Overall, your hips, shoulders and ears should be in one line, extending straight up from the ground.

Our modern day devices and screens have us sitting or looking at our phones for long periods, pulling our shoulders and head forwards and slouching the lower back. This posture often leads to strains, aches and pains in the neck, upper back and shoulders. Not only that, it makes us shorter and appear less confident.

Back brace for scoliosis?

The average posture brace you buy online will not deal with scoliosis, although they do exist and are generally very expensive.
The posture braces that are commonly advertised on facebook and also on eBay are more to help with the postural problems that you see from side on. They are generally inexpensive and often pull the shoulders back to help you stop slouching forward.

So should you use a brace to help keep a more upright posture?

In the short term, maybe. If you’re in a lot of pain due to poor posture then this can help you help decrease some of that and remind your body about what a better posture feels like.

However, for the medium and long term my answer is ’no’ .

When you rely on a brace to improve your posture, you weaken the muscles that are designed to keep you upright.

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

If you go to the gym for 6 month and then stop, you’ll lose the benefit over time, and your muscles will weaken. In the same way, when you take the brace off, your body will be even less able to hold and maintain a good position. And that is what we want in the end isn’t it: for your body to naturally be able to hold the posture which keeps minimises aches and pains, makes you taller and allow your body to function better for longer.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have any question or want an appointment, feel free to book online or contact us.