What We Know

8. The Apex doesn’t increase muscle demands on other parts of the body.

Although the Apex reduces back muscle activity, it does not do so at the expense of increasing muscle demands on other parts of the body. This is because the energy stored in the Apex’s elastic bands comes from gravity, not from the user’s abdominal muscles having to work harder.

Peer-reviewed studies by Iowa State University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Wyoming all concluded that abdominal muscle activity does not increase when wearing the Apex (Lamers 2020, Gorsic 2021, Kang 2023). The University of Wyoming study reported that when wearing the Apex “no adverse effects on other muscles or during non-lifting tasks were noted” (Gorsic 2021).

In 2024, research from Georgia Tech (Davenport 2024) combined human subject biomechanics experiments with the HeroWear exosuit and EMG-informed musculoskeletal modeling to discover that the exosuit simultaneously reduced joint contact forces on both the user’s spine and the knee joints. This was one of the first scientific studies to demonstrate that the Apex can reduce biomechanical loading and ergonomic risk at both the targeted joints (i.e., lower back) and non-targeted joints (e.g., knee).

This finding was then corroborated by a similar, independently-run experimental and musculoskeletal modelling study from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Germany (Troster 2025). This research team also found that soft elastic exosuits like the HeroWear Apex 2 reduced loading on multiple areas of the body—including the shoulders, hips, and knees—in addition to reducing back muscle and spine compression forces on the user.

These scientific findings that the HeroWear exosuit does not increase muscle demands on other parts of the body—and in some cases even reduces loading on other body joints—is further bolstered by industry field study data. For example, HeroWear survey data from over 500 multi-month exosuit users revealed reductions in worker-reported discomfort across a wide range of body parts (see Science Page 4), which would not be observed if the Apex had increased demands on other body parts. Furthermore, in a longitudinal study, over 302K work hours after deploying HeroWear Apex 2 exosuits, total sprain/strain injuries were reduced by 67% and there were zero back injuries amongst exosuit users. This long-term injury data revealed that back injury rate decreased without any indication of injuries to other body parts increasing.

Collectively, these academic studies and field study data provide strong converging evidence that the Apex does not interfere with or increase demands on other muscles or body parts. Current evidence suggests that there are likely biomechanical and ergonomic risk reduction benefits to other parts of the body (e.g., knees, hips, shoulders) beyond just the back.