Show HN: Slouch Stoppah

[Noumenon72]

Good habit formation can't hurt, but don't neglect the fundamentals. The thing that's pulling your shoulders forward is not some mental weakness on your part, it's an imbalance in muscle tightness and weakness, like a tent pole with regular guy wires on one side and yarn on the other. You need exercises to strengthen the lower traps like floor Y's and chest supported dumbbell row, plus face pulls and scapular wall slide.

https://1h6wllf3f4qfut1832zlo21e-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-... (upper cross syndrome diagram)

https://www.t-nation.com/training/top-priority-for-lower-tra... (prone Y)

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19521507/chest-supported... (chest supported dumbbell row)

https://www.t-nation.com/training/whats-your-weak-link (scapular wall slide)

[lnenad]

I've made this for myself to help me slouch less, so I thought it might be useful to others. It uses face-api.js to get the user's face, and then tries to guess when you're slouching by capturing the state when you are sitting upright, and then using position and face size in relation to the captured state. All processing is done client side and no data is being sent anywhere.

The code is open sourced and can be seen here https://github.com/lnenad/slouch-stoppah

[colordrops]

Daily Mysore yoga and a standing desk will also completely fix posture without needing constant reminders or cyborg devices, but require more effort. There are other great benefits though, such as weight loss, core strength, and pain reduction.

[mattbreeden]

I still slump my shoulders forward at a standing desk

[greggman2]

And foot destruction (or at least that was my experience and I had to give up the standing desk) YMMV

[lnenad]

This is free and at least for my company getting standing desks isn't priority. While not perfect it worked for me, so I decided to share :)

[jakequade]

> cyborg devices

Uhhh....

[nchelluri]

https://medium.com/@nchelluri/you-deserve-a-pull-up-bar-84ec... is my alternative

[Noumenon72]

One of the bullpens at my new job pitched in and got a pull-up stand! It brings people to visit and makes the place feel like we own it a little. That's a good selling point that it causes you to rotate your shoulder blades back and up. Hanging leg lifts can also be done and are also a much more effective ab exercise than situps (since it only takes 10 reps to get tired, and you can bring your knees closer or farther away to adjust the resistance).

[pimlottc]

I'm a little confused by this brief post. Are they suggesting somehow incorporating the pull-up bar into your workstation setup or just installing one nearby and doing pull-ups periodically during breaks?

[pipu]

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing.

I can personally recommend Upright Pose, https://www.uprightpose.com/en-try/

[kareemm]

What benefits did you get from it?

[viburnum]

If your posture is so bad that you literally can’t or don’t know how to stand up straight, your hamstrings might be super tight. Mine were, anyway.

[knowmad]

I too have bad posture and super tight hamstrings. Any tips of improving one or both of those things?

[raldi]

I can't get the initial overlay to close (Chrome on iPhone). Neither the close button nor the X do anything.

[uvisgrinfelds]

Love it, already started using it. I was thinking of making something similar; now I don't have to! Thanks.

[lnenad]

Thank you, since you wanted to make something similar if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know :)

[chrisbennet]

"slouching" in the other direction is supposed to be good.

'http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6187080.stm

[Yenrabbit]

Started up my own version of this ~10 seconds before I saw this story. It's amazing how a simple program ("yell at the user if face position < threshold") is enough to quickly train some better habits.

[xwowsersx]

Very cool. My camera is capturing, but the button for "capture current position" is never enabled. What am I doing wrong here?

[lnenad]

Hmm sorry to hear that, can you maybe open the browser console and see if there are any errors?

[hammerbrostime]

Bostonian?

[lnenad]

Nope, why?

[29athrowaway]

There are also electronic posture training devices to help with this.

[tinktank]

Can you recommend any?