With today’s tech habits amplifying posture problems, it’s not surprising we’re hearing more talk about stuff to fix posture. Just about every week, I’m asked about a new posture product, gadget app, or brace that’s being pitched to fix, correct, and take care of bad posture and make it perfect.

From entrepreneurs on Shark Tank to mega-corporations, they’re all selling ways to fix posture, a fix to the consequences of our tech addictions. The thing is, marketers, sell stuff some of it’s good, some less so, and despite great sales pitches, lots of them are gimmicks, it’s just not practical nor sustainable for new habits, braces designed to hold your shoulders back claim to fix rounded shoulders, and initially, they can ease back pain, but when muscles that should be holding your shoulders back and holding you tall aren’t working, the muscles weaken. If you’ve ever had a broken bone put into a cast, then you know when the cast was removed, your arm or your leg looks shrunken and withered, and it was weak, which is why supports and braces don’t work.

Binding something in place doesn’t make it stronger. Doctors know when you give someone a cane or a walker pretty soon without the help of the aid, it becomes harder for them to walk and even stand tall on their own. It makes sense that the buzz today is about tech because phones and our slump posture have become the new normal of modern life, but it’s really just the latest step of a 12,000-year evolution, really a revolution that tech is accelerating dramatically in the past few years.

You can download or listen to the audio file here:

The Evolution of Modern Posture Introduction by Dr. Steven Weiniger