On 9NEWS · 2021
3 tips for better posture at work
Aired on 9NEWS, July 28, 2021. Reprinted with permission.
2026 note from Jamie
In this one I talk about "correcting" posture. I'd say it differently now. The research hasn't shown that posture causes back or neck pain. These three moves still help, because a desk day leaves you stiff, and moving and strengthening feels better. The rule I use today: your next posture is your best posture.
Play video: 3 tips for better posture at work (9NEWS) Transcript
Jamie: If you want to know about posture, I've got three tips coming right up.
Jamie: I'm 9NEWS fitness expert Jamie Atlas, and today we're talking posture. A lot of us are coming back to the workplace, or just finding that our posture is starting to fall apart. So here are the three things you need to know. Number one is the angle of the hips: these hips are going to tighten at the front. Number two is the shoulder blades rounding forward. Number three is the weight of this head needs to be corrected.
Jamie: So, number one, really easy. All you need is a chair or a bench or whatever you have right there. You can put this leg up and really stretch forward to stretch the front of the back leg, and vice versa.
Jamie: Number two is how we correct the shoulder blades. To correct the shoulder blades, I'm going to take a resistance band, put one leg back, and pull. The emphasis in this exercise is pulling the shoulder blades back and really trying to undo that desk-like T. rex arm position.
Jamie: Number three is our reverse curl. We're going to hunch forward, bring your chest over the edge of a bench, drop down, bring it up. Give me 15 to 20 reps of that. And those are the three exercises you need to know: correct the pelvic tilt, correct the shoulder position, correct the strength in the neck.
Afterword, 2026
The research behind my change of mind: a 2020 review of 41 systematic reviews, by Swain and colleagues in the Journal of Biomechanics, found "no consensus regarding causality of physical exposure to LBP" (low back pain). Sitting and posture show up as associations. Nobody has shown they are the cause.
So keep the three moves, drop the guilt about how you sit. Below is Sandy, a client who had lived with neck pain for three years. One person's result, not a promise.
Sandy, 3 years of 8/10 neck pain
An office worker who'd had it for three years. Pain went from 8/10 to 0/10 in three weeks, and her tears of happiness are 100% in-the-moment real.
Results vary from person to person.
Play video: Client testimonial: Sandy, 3 years of neck pain rated 8/10 Related
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