By Lara Samuelsson of The Physio Pilates Movement

When we are born, we have one round curve to our spine. In traditional Pilates, they believe that this is our "ideal posture". Due to this, Joseph Pilates used to teach flat back and spine, and encourage pushing your back flat into the ground during exercise. He would encourage his clients to work towards eliminating curves in their spine.

As physiotherapists and exercise physiologists, we know the importance of developing these curves so our spine is in more of an S shape. These curves are important to allow weight to distribute evenly through our spinal joints and discs to avoid excessive strain on certain areas. It is also important for mobility, shock absorption and to minimise muscle strain.

Modern lifestyle can impact postural habits and leave us with poor posture. Slumped at a computer chair all day? Doing the same repetitive movements daily? A lot of our daily activities involve bending or slumping forward, so we are rarely stretching through the front of our body.

Your body adapts to these prolonged positions and this leads to tight and weak muscles and, ultimately, poor posture and pain.

Repetitive bending forwards compresses the discs in our spine. Think of our discs like a jam doughnut. All day the front of the doughnut is being compressed by the vertebrae. Eventually the jam can put pressure on the back of the doughnut and start to ooze out. This poor posture is a common cause for disc bulges in the spine.

Here are some tips to improve your desk set-up and encourage good sitting posture. It is also helpful to take regular breaks by getting up for a drink, for the toilet or an admin task such as using the printer.

• Top of the screen at eye level
• Sit straight on to screen (if you have 2 screens, turn body and chair to face each screen)
• Shoulders relaxed
• Elbows close to body (elbows 90-120 degrees)
• Low back supported (if your chair does not have a lumbar support, a lumbar cushion can be purchased)
• Knees below hips (hips 90-120deg)
• Feet flat on the ground
• Wrists straight not angled up.

Our physiotherapists and exercise physiologists are trained to assess your posture and provide you with a program to target your areas of tightness and weakness to improve your posture. If you would like extra advice on workplace ergonomics or targeted postural exercises, contact us on 4294 3173 to make a booking.

A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of sloppy exercises.

For more information, visit TPM's website