Free yourself from the habits and conditioning that keeps your mind and body in stress!
What Is The PostureJac?
The PostureJac is a “4 in 1” portable exercise and support device. It guides and conditions the body and mind to stretch upward and experience good posture.
It can be used to achieve the following effects related to forward head/rounded shoulders posture:
Stretch your shortened structures and mobilize stiff joints.
Strengthen and condition your weak and inactive support/core muscles.
Replace your sense of what feels normal through activity and habits to restore balance and straighter, taller posture.
Eliminate painful myofascial trigger points in your neck and shoulder regions.
The patented design involves the body in building posture correcting habits.
The PostureJac was developed by Dr. Howard Makofsky, Professor of Physical Therapy and textbook author.
After 30 years of clinical experience as a therapist, he created the PostureJac and the exercises to bring postural change and reconditioning into daily living. Throughout this website Spinal Lift is emphasized through a mechanism that he calls the "Spinal Corkscrew Principle":
Shoulders down, spine up!
Discover A New Way To Conquer Old Habits!
The secret to escaping from the prison of poor posture may be your own awareness. You may not even conscious that your whole body is locked in unhealthy habit patterns that cause chronic pain. "It just feels so normal." "Everybody seems be doing it." Over the years this stress has changed your body shape, structure and function.
The PostureJac fits comfortably around your shoulders, ready for activation by gentle pressure on the handles. Some like to wear it continually because it provides comfort, support, stabillity and relief from pain. Others will set aside specific time periods for therapeutic exercise and conditioning. As little as five minutes a day will make a difference.
Use the Posture Correction Exercises to learn new activity patterns that can recondition your whole body. Make them part of your life to displace unhealthy inactivity. Start with frequent, gentle use at first and then whatever suits your needs. The PostureJac is intended to make you dependant on activity, not on a device.
Use it where poor posture habits develop - at home, the workplace, travel and recreation, or carrying heavy loads. Sit at your desk, walk, travel, work, work out with it, wear it around the house, on the construction site, under a backpack - the possibilities are endless. Let it guide you to the freedom of a better posture awareness, body conditioning, mechanics and pain relief.
There are many products that try to correct posture by pulling the shoulders back, and there are effective exercise programs. Why do we need one more? Isn't this just another brace?
Braces are like casts. Their benefits are short lived. Have you ever noticed what the muscle condition looks like after a cast comes off? Healthy activity is necessary to maintain function.
Posture cushions and lumbar supports are helpful for positioning, but they don't provide conditioning. The PostureJac is not a passive device. It requires your active participation.
The PostureJac has been compared to training wheels on a bicycle. It develops balance, core stability, kinaesthetic awareness and internal muscle memory for stable posture and independance from a device.
Dr. Makofsky's patented design emphasizes a spinal lifting action to regain your lost height. There is real validity to the old solution of walking around with a book on your head. It's just not realistic so you need some other way to help your body learn and remember to stretch upwards.
Exercise programs are geat but are easily neglected. They become part of the "should do's" in your live. It is easy to start with enthusiasm and run out of steam. The PostureJac fits in your life, not your drawer or closet. You can learn to lift where you slouch; at home, work or travel.
Professional therapy is valuable, but not always convenient or affordable - and it may not change your habits. If you are being treated by a therapist, the PostureJac makes an excellent partner, extending the benefits between treatments and decreasing the time for rehabilitation. The PostureJac can also save you a lot of money.
The PostureJac is your portable trainer at your point of need - when you need it - not when can get an appointment.
Check out the custom designed exercises for posture correction, shoulder and breathing problems, and building core stability. See the posture pump in action with the Piston Exercise.
"Conditioning starts in the brain, moves to the muscles, which sets the fascia and finally - for good or ill - settles in the organs." Thomas Meyers, Twitter, 2009
"Better postured individuals probably have fewer defects, enjoy better health, and live longer than those with a seriously distorted skeleton."
Joseph T. Freeman, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association, October 19, 1957.
"Simply by standing straight, you will instantly slim your waistline by an inch or more."
"A strong, straight spine portrays youth and vigor. Slumping forward decreases your chest measurement, rounds and narrows your shoulders, and can decrease your height by as much as two inches."
"Improving your posture can help you build self-esteem, radiate confidence and capability, interview well for jobs, and improve work performance (particularly in sales or business)."
Quotes from Janice Novak, MS, Author of Posture, Get it Straight, Second Edition, 2006
"The PostureJac is extremely user-friendly and educates the patient in correct postural alignment. It also helps maintain proper alignment while exercising."
Deborah K. White, Physical Therapist
"I have tested the PostureJac, and must say that this device needs to be considered as much of an option to assist with adjustment programs, as cervical pillows and mirrored exercises." Dr. David Harper BSc., D.C., F.C.C.S.S., PhD Candidate
The MyoPresser accessories fasten under the strap and can be positioned along the strap lines over your painful contraction knots or trigger points that cause the myofascial pain. You control the amount of pressure for a great massage, releasing the tensions that often lead to chronic headaches and myofascial pain
Chronic pain is commonly caused by poor posture/kyphosis. You can treat the trigger points with the MyoPressers but you need to correct the problem; poor posture.
One set comes with each PostureJac unit. Extra sets can be included with your purchase.
"That PostureJac is amazing. I use it morning, noon and night. Without a doubt it is a dream machine. It took me off pain pills in 3 days after suffering for 2 weeks on pills that didn't help." Alan DeLong, The Computer Guy, New York
"The PostureJac gave me immediate relief from the pain shooting down my leg. Overall, it really is making a difference"
Eugenia Greig, Toronto
Who Needs The PostureJac?
This is a device with many applications over a wide age range. It is for you if you are willing to actively be involved in correcting or protecting your posture - to look better, feel better, and function better with pain relief. If you have a fragile condition you should see the Contraindications page and seek professional approval before using the PostureJac for exercise.
Physicians, physical and occupational therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, massage therapists, personal trainers, etc. prescribe it and use it in therapy. It has a wide variety of applications including orthopaedic rehabilitation - from disease, surgery and accident and soft tissue injuries, repetitive strain injury (RSI) in the home and workplace, aesthetics, recreation, travel, athletic training, mobility training and teaching correct posture. See more information on the Applications section.
Don't wait until the forward head/rounded shoulders posture syndrome is a problem. Just as we tune up our cars to avoid expensive repairs, your body will be healthier and last longer if it is conditioned. The PostureJac exercises will help maitain that from the top of the spine, through your core and down into your feet.
We have high school and college athletes, geriatrics and adolescents with scoliosis/kyphosis, post-surgical spinal/shoulder patients using the device. Old and young, athletic and sededentary, all have benefitted from using the PostureJac. Post-op patients have found the Posture-Jac as a less invasive self stretching/unloading/posture correcting device. Frank Zic, DPT
"My PostureJac arrived just after I had finished a six-hour drive in a small rented car. Slipping on the PostureJac to give it a try, I pulled my shoulder muscles down into a relieving stretch, and automatically 'jacked' my spine up back into its normal length. Now, when I come home from long plane trips, PostureJac gets a workout before I do. Thomas Myers, Author of Anatomy Trains (Elsevier 2001, 2009), www.anatomytrains.com
"The PostureJac is an excellent device for those patients suffering from posturally-related TMD, myofascial pain, tension-type headaches, etc. It is just what the doctor ordered for the correction of forward head posture." Leonard B. Goldstein, DDS, PhD.
