Ausdroid previews the Upright Go posture trainer

Back pain. Headaches. Fatigue. Things caused by bad posture that claim to be able to be fixed – not with the help of something physical such as a visit to a chiropractor, or physio, but rather by a little electronic device by a company called Upright Go, and your own hard work and dedication.

Earlier this month Ausdroid was sent one of these little friends, with the device actually loaned to my mother to try out. The media release from Upright Go says the following “a smart, wearable device unlike any other, that gives people the power to comfortably train themselves thought the entire day, or while driving, to become upright, with proper posture.” It claims that results can be seen in 2-3 weeks, undoing poor posture and working to alleviate issues with back pain, stress & fatigue, whilst improving wellbeing, appearance & confidence.

How’s it work?

The device works by linking it to your phone via Bluetooth (with the app available to download compatible with Android 6, and iOS 11 and up), subtly vibrating every time you begin to slouch past the point you’ve indicated as upright. A gentle reminder to sit or stand up straight, that can take pressure off the spine. The device weighs as little as 11 grams, powered via a single cell, lithium-polymer 3.7 volt, 150mAH, 0.55Wh rechargeable battery, that you attach to your back by means of an adhesive strip.

I wore one for the day, the initial set up on my phone – downloading the app & connecting the device – was simple. Setting up the good posture angle, sticking the device to my back & setting my goals were also simple. What I found a little frustrating though was the actual vibrations themselves. They give out a gentle buzz when you’re nearing the bad position, and then a harder (not at all painful) more constant buzz when you’re past the point. Which happened whenever I got up to walk around.

To me it felt like an annoying tickle, like when a bug is crawling on you, and I hate bugs. You can select what kind of activities you’re doing (sitting, walking, running), and so I swapped to the more active setting when I went for a walk on my lunch break, but the device was still buzzing almost constantly while I walked (there is a big hill to walk back up, and I assume my leaning to compensate for the incline was detected as slouching).

The training starts low, the first day just 7 minutes is required to hit the training target, where you can then switch to tracking and at the end of the day you can look back at your stats. I feel like, as mentioned above, these may not be 100% accurate due to the extra movements when walking, or perhaps leaning over a co-workers desk while looking at floor layout drawings, or bending to pick up children etc. the other thing I noticed was while sitting at my desk, I could dupe the system. I could still slouch my shoulders (bad posture) so long as I compensated by leaning back in my chair.

So I could sit terribly, but comfortably (for me) and still be in the “good posture” range (I know, I was only cheating myself!). The other really, REALLY irritating thing, which wont affect everybody, was I had my long hair in a ponytail and hair kept getting caught around the device and under the sticky adhesive strips used to hold it to the skin. At the end of the day when I pulled the device off my back, there were numerous strands of hair stick to the adhesive that had been pulled out of my scalp.

Overall it’s a cute little device that’s easy to set up & use, with a great, easy to use app. In the box you get the device, a charging cable, instruction booklet, and lots of spare sticky adhesive pads (more can be ordered from their website, but with proper maintenance they can be used between 3-10 times depending on skin type). The device is charged via a USB cable, and only take 3 hours to be full from empty, with a battery life of approximately 30 hours.

I look forward to writing a more in-depth review with my mum in the next few weeks.