Your mother was right: Standing up straight IS good for you (by helping you tolerate pain)


Mothers have long told their children to stop slouching and sit up straight.

Now scientists have shown that good posture doesn’t just give a good impression – it also raises your pain threshold. They also found slouching makes the body more sensitive to discomfort.

The researchers began their tests by putting blood-pressure cuffs on the arms of volunteers and inflating them until they began to feel pain.

Standing tall: Perfect posture could help prevent pain

Standing tall: Perfect posture could help prevent pain

The participants were then asked to hold one of three yoga poses for 20 seconds before having the cuff put on again.

Holding a ‘dominant’ yoga pose with a straight back and feet placed wide apart boosted tolerance to pain, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology reports.

The researchers, from the universities of Toronto and Southern California, then studied whether the effect is contagious – that is, if one person’s posture affects the way another perceives pain.

To do this, they asked volunteers to sit down and discuss the merits of various nature photos with researchers.

Poise was originally promoted to make a good first impression

Poise was originally promoted to make a good first impression

Pain thresholds were measured before and after the conversations. When the researcher sat up straight, the volunteer slouched – and their sensitivity to pain increased.

The experts were unsure what caused the results, but previous research has found that so-called ‘power posing’ – standing with arms outstretched rather than crossed, for example – boosts the body’s production of testosterone, a sex hormone that increases tolerance to pain.

In some cases, the researcher sat in a dominant position, with legs apart and back straight, in others he slouched in the chair.

Video tapes showed that when the researcher sat up, the volunteer slouched – and made their grip weaker and increased their sensitivity to pain.

The findings suggest that rather than curling up in a ball when you feel ill, you should stand up straight, push out your chest and make yourself as large as possible. 

Standing up straight may also help with emotional pain by, for example, making romantic break-ups more bearable.

The phenomenon may also have implications for medical staff who often hold patients’ hands during painful procedures.

However, the finding suggests that this may make things hurt more.  Instead, patients should be encouraged to sit up straight, throw their shoulders back and make the best of things.

The researchers said: ‘The management of pain has presented an enduring puzzle for medical patients, practitioners and researchers alike because the experience of pain is not only distressing but also highly subjective.

‘Indeed, pain appears to be as psychological as it is physiological.’

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.