Can Special Workout Clothing Really Improve Your Posture While You Exercise?

But I didn’t really feel that shift translate into postural changes during specific movements; as I watched myself within the mirror during one Pilates class, I still needed to actively take into consideration pulling my shoulders back during standing moves like lunges and squats. And the more I wore the bra, the less powerful that initial feeling was. Over the course of an 18-mile run, for instance, I still hunched my shoulders like I do when wearing a conventional sports bra.

As for the leggings, I felt no difference from my standard compression tights. Forme says its patented 3D waistband alignment technology engages muscle memory in your core, glutes, and spine to higher your alignment, stability, and mobility. However the only difference I actually felt was the high waist digging barely uncomfortably into my midsection after I moved.

After wearing each products through multiple workouts over the course of two weeks—and a surprisingly super-comfy 11-hour flight to Japan—I even have to say I’m skeptical about its posture advantages. FWIW, the brand recommends wearing their apparel for 4 to 6 hours throughout the day for 4 to 6 months to enhance posture, so I can’t say obviously that following this to a T wouldn’t have led to more dramatic results.

It made me wonder, though: Should I even have felt a much bigger change? I connected with physical therapist and licensed run roach Victoria Sekely, DPT, CSCS, for some intel.

After I told her about my experience, she wasn’t surprised. “Saying that there’s one perfect posture shouldn’t be true,” Dr. Sekely tells SELF. And looking for that likely won’t bring the pain or injury profit chances are you’ll think.

Seems, the emphasis on “good posture” is more of an old-school way of considering that’s probably not backed by research anymore, she says. As an alternative of needing to correct poor posture—which has turn out to be mainly synonymous with slouching—what your body actually craves is change.

“Putting yourself in a special position—by, say, putting on this bra—will immediately make you’re feeling higher,” Dr. Sekely says. “Nevertheless it’s not since the position’s higher, it’s since the position is different.”

Any position, whether that’s curled over your mobile phone or sitting at your desk with a ramrod-straight back, could be painful for those who stay in it long enough. “Your best posture,” she adds, “is your next posture.” The secret, then, is to take movement breaks to get your body used to changing positions.

In truth, that 2021 study within the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics declared “the PMSS shouldn’t be intended as a therapeutic device to correct posture abnormalities or as a long-term solution to less-than-ideal posture.” Relatively, the study authors wrote, it ought to be viewed as an fast posture corrector or, essentially, shapewear. And when taking a look at other related literature, researchers determined that there’s no real evidence supporting posture-correcting shirts as a tool for pain relief, in accordance with a 2019 review published within the Scandinavian Journal of Pain.