Lumo back is an unusual product. It aims to improve your posture using a small sensor attached to an elasticated belt that fits around your waist. It’s a light, all black product that is about two inches wide. The idea behind LUMO BodyTech’s first ever product, is that you wear it on a daily basis and the sensor will vibrate gently along your lower back when your spine is anything but straight. Lumo back has an accompanying real time app that shows you visually how you are sitting, standing or running etc thanks to your own personal stickman avatar called Lumo – who mirrors your posture on your iPhone and gives that posture a rating out of 100%. They call Lumo back a ‘Posture Coach’… but does it really work?
On opening the packaging, I am sceptical – the product sounds high tech but looks simple. Always one to keep an open mind though, I read the instructions and set up Lumo back for its intended use with me – which is to help improve my posture when writing and horse riding.
The app is free on iTunes and easy to download and set up. It’s an innovative but raw format that gives you as much information and help as you want. It can ‘track steps, calories burned, time standing, time sitting and the number of times users stand up each day.’ At the end of the day, Lumo, your personal stickman avatar, will give you a posture score ‘so that progress can be monitored as posture is improved.’
As much as I like this app, and Lumo my personal stickman avatar, I was less interested in this feedback and more interested in how quickly the Lumo Back reminded me of slouching when I was wearing it…
I first tried the product out when sitting at my desk. Since graduating with a degree in Photojournalism in 2009, I have spent a lot of time at this desk, writing feature articles and editing thousands of images. My desk has been a place of happiness and creativity – but also a great source of discomfort. Throughout these 5 years my posture has gone from excellent to poor and the slouching position that I have now acquired, has started to become painful and affect other areas of my life as well.
I knew that this product would vibrate immediently after I attached the elasticated belt around my waist. But what I didn’t realise was how often it would vibrate from there on in – and how self-conscious that made me feel. That constant reminder made me think about bringing my shoulders back and sitting as tall as I could. WARNING: This product does distract you from your work on day 1… but by day 7, you almost forget it is there.
I can honestly say that I do sit taller at my desk now. But what I also have to say is that Lumo back is not a magic product. You have to work to achieve good posture – it does not do that for you. And after 5 years of sitting in the wrong way, my muscles have still not memorised the right way yet. Discomfort is still there, but I’ve gone from 40% to 75% on my posture score – so things are improving.
The biggest test of this product though, was using it when I was horse riding. After 16 years of cycling to my horses on a mountain bike, I have developed round shoulders – which will one day, if I don’t do something about it, leave me with a stoop. And as I hope to compete in dressage competitions soon, the last thing I want to be is a horse-riding hunchback.
Obviously when you are horse riding, you can’t be constantly looking at your phone. So, Lumo was not able to help me here with his visual aids – for horse riding I was relying solely on the sensor to vibrate gently along my lower back when I rode in an inelegant fashion.
At first I couldn’t feel the sensor when doing schooling exercises such as rising trot, sitting trot or canter work on my horse. But the moment we came back to walk, I felt it vibrate – and it did this a lot through the walking phase. It seems that when I relax too much, I slouch. I need to be a little tense, or a little more preoccupied, to achieve good posture in the saddle.
Lumo back has shown me my weaknesses – when sitting at my desk writing, and when schooling my horse – and that is no mean feat. This product gives you a conscience when it comes to your own vanity. It makes you want to be a more elegant version of yourself. The constant reminders and daily posture scores really spur you into action.
I’ve come to see Lumo back as an essential part of my daily routine now. It has given me a goal. And that goal is to reach 99% for my posture score (I couldn’t say 100%, as no one is perfect, even with Lumo :-) ).
For more information, check out the LUMO BodyTech website:
http://www.lumobodytech.com/lumoback/
LUMOback is available from Amazon UK for £129.95 and includes free P+P:
LUMO BodyTech are also bringing out a new product this October called LUMOlift Posture Coach. Lumo Lift will be available from Amazon.co.uk from mid October and Apple stores later in the month. It will retail at £79.99.