Posture

How common it is

Back problems accounted for 4.3 per cent of Australia's total disease burden in 2023, ^[1] and a large share of that load is carried by people who spend most of the day seated.

We are not going to tell you that a curve on a photograph is the cause of everything. Many people come to us because a desk job has made an old problem noisier, which is a more useful thing to talk about than a perfect spine.

What can be behind it

Australian consumer guidance lists the complications of poor posture as back pain, spinal dysfunction, joint degeneration, rounded shoulders and a protruding abdomen, ^[2] and notes that bad habits such as slouching and inactivity cause muscle fatigue and tension that ultimately lead to poor posture. ^[2]

The mechanism is dull but honest. Sustained positions load the same joints and the same postural muscles for hours, those muscles tire, the joints stop gliding through their full range, and the body starts recruiting whatever else it can. That is why the answer is usually movement rather than effortful sitting up straight.

• Hours held in one position without a break
• Screen and chair heights that force the head forward
• Mid back joints that have stopped moving freely
• General inactivity outside work hours

How we assess it

We look at how you actually stand and move rather than how you hold yourself when you know you are being watched. Where the weight sits, how the shoulders and pelvis line up, and which segments contribute nothing when you bend and turn.

The Gonstead examination then gets specific: heat readings along the spine, palpation at rest and in motion through the neck and the mid back, and a check of the hips, because a pelvis that will not rotate makes the spine above it do the work.

What care looks like

We adjust the segments the examination shows are restricted, and we are candid that adjusting alone will not change how you spend eight hours a day. Good posture is described as feeling effortless, ^[2] which is a fair test of whether a change has actually helped.

We discuss your movement breaks and screen setup as part of the assessment. Any suggestions take account of your work and what is practical for your day.

When to seek urgent care

We are not an emergency service. If you have loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the saddle area, weakness in both legs, or pain after a serious accident, call 000 or go to an emergency department.