Explainer: can you cure bad posture?

Posture is not a rigid concept. It represents something more fluid with considerable range for change. Despite this, it is often oversimplified, rightly or wrongly, as being “good” or “bad”.

Your posture is affected by many aspects of your daily life, including physical and psychological factors. The former can include how you sit and for how long, how active you are, and if you are repeatably placing strain on your body. From a psychological perspective, how well you are dealing with stress, how balanced your work, social and family life is, and your overall level of self-esteem will all contribute to your posture.

It is widely accepted that psychological factors can drive and amplify how we feel about our pain. Given that poor sustained posture can lead to physical pain, we can’t ignore it but when addressing postural issues we also need to consider the role of the mind.