Getting Started With The Lumo Lift

Back straight. Shoulders back. Head up. Tuck chin in. Tighten those abs a bit. Squeeze those butt cheeks together. Now, keep in this position until you’re finished reading this article. 15 minutes (at most) of good posture.

Ready?…

Begin.

Good posture is hard. Staring at computers and smartphones all day only makes good posture even more difficult. Even worse, slouching is comfortable. It’s easy to find yourself sitting in the same slouched positions hours later sifting through emails.

A little device called Lumo Lift aims to correct your posture. Lumo Lift is a small device that magnetically clips onto your shirt, ideally an inch below your collarbone. The device itself sits inside of your shirt while a small rectangular magnet attached to the outside of your shirt. The Lumo Lift functions via one button and a vibration motor.

In short, you slouch. It vibrates to tell you to sit up straight.

Lumo Lift does not require a smartphone to work. However, connecting to your PC or smartphone will enable some additional features such as a pedometer, an overview of your posture history, and the ability to set the Coaching Session length (more on this in a bit). The Lumo team is actively working on an Android app and are very near to its release.

…Still sitting up straight?

How Does The Lumo Lift Work?

The Lumo Lift device has no idea what good posture actually is out of the box. You must tell the Lumo Lift what good posture is by quickly double tapping the button. You will actually double tap the square piece of metal on your shirt which is strongly connected to the button on the Lumo Lift device on the other side. You should find yourself double tapping the button many times throughout the day.

Double tapping the button will tell the Lumo Lift, “This is good posture, make sure I stay this way.” If you slouch from that calibrated position it will vibrate. Therefore, it is entirely up to you to calibrate the device. If you double tap the button while you are slouching, the Lumo Lift will buzz you every time you sit up straight.

Through the Lumo Lift app, you will be able to set how long you slouch before it buzzes you. This is called “Coach Vibrations” and can be set between 3 seconds and 10 minutes. Lumo recommends 2 minutes. You do not want it vibrating every time you bend over to pick something up.

The Lumo Lift has onboard memory and can store your activity for about a month at a time without needing to connect to your smartphone or PC. The battery is advertised to last up to 5 days. In my experience I was usually recharging it on the 4th day. It charges through a little magnetic USB docking station and takes about 2-3 hours to charge fully.

…Is your back still straight?

Putting The Lumo Lift To The Test

Sitting working at a computer

Hundreds of millions of people sit behind a computer to work. 60% of the US is classified as a “white-collar job,” of which, the vast majority consist of office jobs also known as sitting-at-a-desk-all-day. Globally, we sit about 7.7 hours a day. There are hundreds of articles how sitting is the new smoking. It is killing you they say.

Sitting with proper posture at a desk is really difficult. It requires muscle activation all day, every day particularly with your abs and butt. The Lumo Lift is helpful but it’s not a miracle worker. For the first few days I spent several hours in a row in near perfect posture. My lower back was sore, I worked slower, and my coworkers asked why I was sitting up so straight. It really is funny how many people notice good posture. After years of seeing nearly everyone in the office slouching it’s strange to see someone purposefully sit upright; it looks unnatural and uncomfortable. It feels unnatural and uncomfortable for a long time.

The Lumo Lift is like tying a string around your finger. Every time you look at that string you are reminded to sit up straight. The Lumo Lift is better than this in that it actually will buzz you on set intervals. It’s annoying. I set mine to buzz every 30 seconds. It buzzed a lot. I straightened up more often than a simple string around the finger.

Slouch. Buzz. Straighten up. Slouch. Buzz. Straight up. Repeat hundreds of times. Remove the Lumo Lift and when you slouch you will hopefully straighten up without the buzz. Lumo is training you Pavlov-style.

However, it’s very easy to ignore. The Lumo Lift is also only monitoring your relative position of your back. My bad posture originates at my neck craning forward for a better view of the screen. My arms come forward to type and move the mouse. Sometimes I’m busy and just need to get work done without worrying about posture (probably a poor excuse). Sometimes I found myself with a straight back but a craned neck and shoulders pushed forward. It was bad posture but I was keeping the Lumo Lift happy.

Standing working at a computer

You might have read my last article about finding the best standing desk for you. I prefer standing as much as I can throughout the day. I usually stand between 4-5 hours in a workday. Keeping good posture while standing is much easier than while sitting. Slouching in a chair is comfortable. Slouching while standing is more or less the same as standing up straight.

The Lumo Lift does a pretty good job here. There are times I would learn forward and rest my elbows on the desk. The Lumo Lift would buzz, I’d silently curse to myself, and stand back up straight.

Cooking

I cook most of my meals. While I’m not particularly concerned with good posture while cooking, the Lumo Lift is nice while cleaning the inevitable pile of dishes. I would often slump as I wiped down the dishes. The Lumo Lift kept me honest.

Eating

Surprisingly this is one of my favorite applications for the Lumo Lift. For whatever reason, I found myself with particularly bad posture while eating. It’s mostly due to my not being mindful during this time. At work, I know I’m supposed to sit up straight. Once I sit down with a meal, all semblance of posture went out the window.

Exercising

The Lumo Lift was really great when I was walking or hiking. I find it very easy to watch the ground as I wandered down a path. The Lumo Lift does not like you watching the sidewalk. Buzz.



In the gym, I found it moderately helpful as well. With some lifts you want to make sure you maintain a straight back but not necessarily perfectly vertical (think barbell row). And since the Lumo Lift doesn’t necessarily care whether you are actually vertically aligned, I could double tap and train it to keep my current position. This is kind of a “hack” of the Lumo Lift. It’s meant to make sure you are upright but it’s just as useful for it to buzz when you change your current position.

The pedometer seems accurate enough although I’m not particularly interested in counting my steps. The Lumo Lift was useless when running since the sensor couldn’t be kept still. The Lumo Lift requires tighter fitting clothing. If your shirt sags the sensor will think you are slouching. For the ladies, it does come with an optional clip for strapping it onto your bra strap.

Driving

Another place where I found myself leaning forward. It’s particularly useful because it was easy to sit fully back in my seat, double tap the button to train the Lumo Lift, and you’re good to go. During long drives it’s an easy time to relax but still focus on your posture. I think this is probably the biggest lasting change the Lumo Lift had for me.

…How are those abs and butt?

Summary Of The Lumo Lift

If you’re concerned that people will notice the little rectangle on your shirt, after 3 weeks only a few people noticed. The magnets that attach to the outside come in many different colors if you want to coordinate your outfit. Unanimously, everyone who saw the Lumo Lift remarked, “Oh that’s something I could use.” Most of us are slouchers. Fortunately at this point, fitness trackers are commonplace. The number of people wearing some sort of bracelet has opened the door for all sorts of wearables.

One of the strangest aspects of good posture is how much people notice, especially when sitting. I was hanging out at a little festival and sitting at a picnic table. The Lumo Lift was diligently yelling at me to sit up straight. After making a conscious effort, my friends remarked how uncomfortable I looked. I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. However, truly good posture looks off, especially when sitting and in a casual environment. There is also no off button. The Lumo Lift will go to sleep if left on a flat surface but you cannot put it in your pocket without it buzzing constantly.

The overall quality of the device is nice. The magnet is very strong. It attaches well and I have no fear of it falling off during the day. I also hardly ever notice I have it on aside from when it buzzes. I found myself often forgetting the Lumo Lift at home. I’d take off my shirt at night, the Lumo Lift still attached and forget about it my morning rush. At one point, it very nearly went through the washing machine and I don’t think it would have survived.

It’s very easy to set up and connect although it takes a quite a while to figure out what all the buzzes mean. For example, press and hold to train and you will feel a long buzz to say “Coaching Session Started.” Double tap to calibrate your posture. Three consecutive buzzes tells you “Your current posture is recorded.” After the Coaching Session ends you will receive two buzzes letting you know. A short buzz tells you to sit up straight. There are a lot of buzzes with the Lumo Lift and for it to be effective you have to know what they mean. The included instructions are basically non-existent and you’re left Googling for answers. Here’s a quick start guide to help with getting started and knowing what proper posture is.

For $79, it’s also not exactly an impulse buy. This is only if using with the iOS app (and the soon to come Android app). If you want to use the Windows app you will need to buy the dongle which takes the price to $94. The apps are well designed but a little lacking in useful data. There are small charts available yet it’s hard to find any exact data aside from the number of hours with good posture vs slouching.

The Lumo Lift does work well and I am much more aware of my posture. If you walk by my office there’s now about a 50% I’ll be in proper posture when sitting and 90% when standing. Even when I forget the sensor at home I find myself sitting up straight after a short period of slouching. Pavlov would be proud.

Couldn’t make it the full article without slouching? The Lumo Lift might be for you.