Massage chairs offer many benefits, and there are different types of massage chairs that cater to different needs. Still, you might not think to look at massage chairs to help with posture. However, they actually can provide this important health benefit.  

Read on to learn how they do that.

Why Good Posture Is Crucial

When you think about the different aspects of health, your posture might not come to mind immediately—but it should. How you “carry yourself” affects your health and well-being in many ways. 

Some of the benefits of good posture include:

• Decreased tension in your neck and shoulders. A common posture where the head is forward rather than being directly above the shoulders and neck can strain the muscles of the upper back, shoulders, and neck. If you question how much strain that can produce, consider that the human head weighs around 10 pounds. Now, imagine the tension it would put on your arms and other muscle groups if you lifted a 10 pound bag of sand and held it in front of you for an entire day! 
• Reduced abnormal wear on the joints. Your joints function optimally and last longer when your body is continually properly aligned. Having poor posture causes accelerated and abnormal wear. Good posture, on the other hand, has the opposite effects.
• Improved lung capacity. If you sit, stand, or walk in a “hunched over” position, you actually compress your lungs and make it harder for them to work. Keeping your spine more upright frees your lungs to function more effectively.
• Less low back pain. Poor posture stresses the spine, particularly the lower back, causing pain. Improving your posture provides relief to your discs, muscles, ligaments, and other structures, thereby reducing your discomfort. 
• Fewer headaches. Headaches have many causes, but one of the most common is muscle tension, particularly in the neck and shoulders. Reducing the stress and tension on those muscles through better posture makes them less likely to trigger a headache. 
• Increased energy. When you maintain good posture, you reduce the effort required of many muscle groups. And that reduced effort (and the “energy savings”) can leave you feeling more energized. 
• Improved circulation. Poor posture can compress everything from blood vessels to organs. When you relieve that pressure by maintaining better posture, your blood flows more freely and your organs work more efficiently. 
• Enhanced workout benefits and reduced injuries. Exercising with poor posture reduces the effectiveness of the activity and increases your risk of injury. Using good posture ensures you get the intended benefits from your workouts and are less likely to get hurt. 

So, good posture is more important than many people realize. It is also more achievable than you may believe. Older adults are often inclined to think that bad posture is simply a function of age. While age does take a toll on the bones, muscles, and other structures, you can reduce the rate of those changes.

Massage Chairs To Help With Posture Problems: Which Is Best?

Any massage chair that effectively reduces muscle tension can help improve your posture. Not surprisingly, Positive Posture massage chairs have features and functions that support better alignment throughout the body. Regular sessions in a Positive Posture Brio Sport, Brio+, or Sōl will definitely lay the foundation for better posture. 

These massage chairs have heated rollers that provide an experience similar to a hot stone treatment, which can melt tension for a profound state of relaxation. The Positive Posture Brio Sport and Brio+ are also 4D zero gravity massage chairs. The abilities to vary the speed of massages (the 4D capability) and recline to a position that is the closest thing you can get on Earth to being weightless (the true zero gravity® position) make these models particularly effective in relieving tight muscles and thereby supporting better posture. 

But, again, every chair in Furniture For Life’s curated collection of The World’s Best Massage Chairs® will give your muscles, tendons, and ligaments the attention they crave and help them achieve a more relaxed, natural state. If you are looking for a massage chair for posture correction, you cannot go wrong with any that we offer.

Get Started Toward Better Posture Today at a Furniture For Life Showroom

If you want to use a massage chair for posture improvement, the time to start is now. Poor posture tends to take years or even decades to develop, so it will take some time to correct. Consequently, the sooner you start getting relaxing massages in the comfort of your home, the better. 

Of course, while it requires multiple massages to guide your body into better alignment, it only takes one session to realize how wonderful it is to have 24/7/365 access to high-quality massages! Additional health benefits, like relief of tight, sore muscles, improved circulation, and better sleep (to name just a few) are essentially immediate as well. 

So, there is no reason to delay and many reasons to start researching massage chairs to help with your posture and deliver other health benefits. Still, it is not a decision that you should rush. Purchasing a massage chair is a significant investment in your well-being. Consequently, you should be very deliberate and methodical in identifying the best chair for your needs. 

We recommend doing plenty of reading about massage chair technology, manufacturers, specific models, etc. Our Learning Center is a great resource. However, we also emphasize that, at the end of the day, attributes like feature sets and price should not be the primary drivers in your decision-making. Instead, the primary criterion in buying a massage chair should be how a particular model makes you feel. It may have many remarkable features or just a few. But if you feel great during and after massages in a particular chair, it is the right one for you. 

To that end, we strongly encourage you to visit the Furniture For Life showroom near you. There, you can talk with a Comfort Consultant whose role is not to “sell you a chair” but rather to help you find the chair you want to purchase. 

They do that by asking questions about your wants and needs and listening closely to the answers. Based on them, the Consultant creates a list of the massage chairs that best meet your requirements. Then, they guide you through “test drives” of each of those chairs, helping you narrow your list and ultimately select the chair you will benefit from most. 

It is a process you will find informative and even enjoyable. Stop by soon and let’s find your perfect chair!