With phones, laptops and hours spent sitting in increasingly creative positions, many of us have eventually caught sight of ourselves and thought:
Wait. Have I always stood like that?
Whether you call it tech neck, shrimping, walking like a question mark or simply having bad posture, the realization usually leads to the same question: Can I actually change this?
Social media would certainly have you believe so. There are endless stretches, five-minute fixes and posture routines promising to straighten you back out. But once a certain posture becomes your normal, is it really that easy to change?
Or worse, have you simply become shaped like this now?
Let’s see what the research says.
The Short Answer
No, you are not doomed to “shrimp” forever.
Research suggests that several measurable aspects of posture, including forward-head posture, rounded shoulders and thoracic kyphosis, can change with exercise.
But there is an important catch.
Simply stretching tight areas does not appear to be particularly effective on its own. The stronger evidence currently points toward strengthening and more comprehensive exercise programs.
So in plain English: Your posture isn’t necessarily permanent. If you want to change it, though, it probably takes more than occasionally pulling your shoulders back or following one more chest stretch video from TikTok.
What Does The Evidence Actually Say?
One of the newest reviews gives us a fairly encouraging answer.
Khorramroo and colleagues pooled 28 randomized controlled trials involving 901 people and found that corrective exercise significantly improved forward-head posture, forward shoulders and thoracic hyperkyphosis.
The effect on alignment was substantial, although the studies themselves differed considerably from one another. Interestingly, the improvements were much less convincing when researchers looked at things such as pain, function and muscle activation.
So yes, posture itself can change.
A 2024 review gives us another useful piece of the puzzle. Across 23 studies involving 969 participants, strengthening exercises improved posture while stretching alone did not. Strengthening appeared particularly useful around the cervical and thoracic spine, while the effects around the lower back and pelvis were much less clear.
Another meta-analysis looking specifically at forward-head posture, rounded shoulders and thoracic kyphosis reached a similar conclusion. Exercise programs incorporating strengthening, stretching and shoulder-focused work improved all three postural measures.
And this isn’t restricted to forward-head posture either. Research in adults with hyperkyphosis also found improvements after exercise programs, particularly those combining strengthening of the back with stretching of the front of the body.
The overall message is surprisingly consistent: Posture can change, but exercise appears to matter more than simply trying to “sit up straight.”
🔬 For the curious: Does “Bad Posture” Automatically mean Pain?
Not necessarily. This is where the story becomes a little less straightforward.
A 2023 review found that one common measurement of head and neck posture, the craniovertebral angle, differed between people with and without neck pain and was associated with pain intensity and disability.
But other measurements of forward-head posture did not show the same clear relationship. So posture and pain can be related, but we should be careful about reducing pain to: Bad posture = pain.
The newer exercise evidence reinforces that point. Researchers can successfully change someone’s measured posture without consistently improving their pain or function at the same time.
Looking straighter and feeling better are not automatically the same outcome.
What Changes The Answer?
There is still quite a bit of variation in this research.
The studies use different exercise programs, different definitions of postural problems, different age groups and different treatment lengths. Many also involve relatively young participants, and long-term follow-up is limited.
The 2026 review, for example, found very high differences between studies even though the overall effects on posture were large.
And “bad posture” itself is an incredibly broad term.
Forward-head posture, rounded shoulders, hyperkyphosis and changes around the lower back are not the same problem. It makes sense that they may not respond equally to the same exercise.
What Does This Mean In Real Life?
If you’ve noticed that your head sits further forward or your shoulders have gradually rounded, there is good reason to believe that you can still change that pattern.
The evidence currently favours exercise, particularly strengthening, rather than relying purely on stretches.
That doesn’t mean stretching is useless. It can still be part of a broader program, and combined approaches have produced positive results. But if your entire posture plan consists of stretching your chest for thirty seconds every few days, science is not particularly convinced.
And if posture comes with persistent pain, weakness, numbness or other symptoms, that becomes a different question than simply wanting to stand a little straighter. This is also when a visit to the doctor to get a professional opinion becomes paramount.
🕳️ 🐇 Rabbit Hole: So why are we always told to just go stretch?
Seems like a “duh” moment, but actually has more depth than that. When something feels tight, stretching it seems like the obvious answer.
The problem is that the evidence doesn’t show much lasting postural change from stretching alone.
In the 2024 review, neither short-term nor long-term stretching significantly changed posture. The researchers found moderate-certainty evidence favouring strengthening instead.
The hyperkyphosis literature tells a similar story. Exercise programs combining stretching and strengthening appear beneficial, but there was only one study looking at stretching as a standalone treatment. The evidence for stretching by itself was considered low quality.
So perhaps the advice shouldn’t simply be: “You’re just tight. You should stretch more.“
It may be closer to: “If you want to change your posture, you probably need to strengthen some places too.”
EVIDENCE VERDICT
Fairly convincing, but does have an important limitation.
How convincing is the evidence?
●●●●○
Can posture actually change?
The referenced evidence says: yes!
Multiple recent reviews have found measurable improvements in forward-head posture, rounded shoulders and thoracic kyphosis after structured exercise.
What is less certain is whether changing those automatically means an improvement in pain, function or quality of life.
Does it change what we should do?
If you want to work on your posture, probably. Strengthening and comprehensive exercise programs make more sense based on the current evidence than relying on stretching alone.
But a nuance on the current evidence basis is also that forcing yourself into one supposedly perfect position also doesn’t exist.
The Bottom Line
Your posture is not necessarily permanent. Even after a forward-head or rounded-shoulder posture has become familiar, research suggests that structured exercise can still change it.
The catch is that there isn’t really a five-minute fix.
You may need to strengthen, move consistently and give your body some time to adapt.
So no, you’re not doomed to walk around like a little shrimp forever.
You might just have to put in slightly more work than telling yourself to “sit up straight.”
References & Sources
View the studies behind this article
- Khorramroo, F., Rostami, M. & Bafrouei, M.J.
Corrective exercises strongly improve posture but fail to produce consistent clinical or functional benefits in patients with upper crossed syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil (2026)
[Read the Study] - Warneke, K., Lohmann, L.H. & Wilke, J.
Effects of Stretching or Strengthening Exercise on Spinal and Lumbopelvic Posture: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.
Sports Med (2024).
[Read the Study] - Sepehri S, Sheikhhoseini R, Piri H, Sayyadi P.
The effect of various therapeutic exercises on forward head posture, rounded shoulder, and hyperkyphosis among people with upper crossed syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2024
[Read the Study] - Rani B, Paul A, Chauhan A, Pradhan P, Dhillon MS.
Is Neck Pain Related to Sagittal Head and Neck Posture?: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Indian J Orthop. (2023)
[Read the Study] - Withers RA, Plesh CR, Skelton DA.
Does stretching of anterior structures alone, or in combination with strengthening of posterior structures, decrease hyperkyphosis and improve posture in adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
J Frailty Sarcopenia Falls. (2023)
[Read the Study]
Written by A Dose of Proof
Health research can be fascinating — but the way it’s written often makes it much harder to understand than it needs to be.
A Dose of Proof is the voice behind After the Abstract, translating health research into clear, evidence-focused explanations that look beyond the headline — including what a study found, what it didn’t prove, and whether the results actually matter.
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