4 surprisingly easy ways to tackle office humpback – before your poor posture is ‘hard to reverse’

Sitting at your desk for as many as 40 hours a week is an almost unavoidable part of many office jobs, but if you’re finding that slouching or slumping is having an impact on your posture, it’s not too late to do something about it.

Making sure your workstation is set up correctly, with your chair and screen at the right height for you, is an important part of supporting good workplace posture. And according to Anouska Shenn, founder of The Office Yoga Company, there are some other mobility exercises that can be performed regularly to overcome pain, discomfort and poor posture in the workplace.

What causes the office humpback?

Firstly, what causes that unsightly office humpback you may have observed, or noticed in yourself? “The short answer is – posture. When we sit or stand upright, and our joints are stacked, we’re at our most stable and use the least amount of muscular effort. Our spine will be in its default ‘S’ shape, which absorbs forces much like a spring does,” Anouska explains.

“When we round our spines forward into a ‘C’ shape, we no longer have that ability to neutralise the compressive forces of gravity and our body weight. When sitting for long periods of time, choosing the path of least resistance, we often lose that default ‘S’ alignment, which means that the passive structures of our back (ligaments, fascia) then have to work extra hard to stabilise us.”

Unfortunately, these issues may worsen with age, too. Anouska, who delivers desk yoga, desk Pilates, and posture workshops for multinational clients such as Amazon, Google and L’Oréal, also says that the longer we put up with these postural issues, the harder they can be to reverse.

“Gravity exerts a downward force which, when combined with sitting for long periods in positions that aren’t fully upright, can harm the health of our muscles and joints. Sitting in a rounded or slumped position places uneven stress on the spine, forcing some muscles to work harder while others get weaker, and can increase pressure on the intervertebral discs,” she says. 

“As we age, these postural habits become harder to reverse and can contribute to chronic pain and reduced mobility.”

How to overcome posture issues

Focusing on your posture while seated may help prevent ongoing issues, while practising mobility exercises can also be beneficial – even if you do them at your desk.

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Seated twists

“Mobility exercises like active seated twists can help. To try this, sit towards the front third of your chair. Reach your arms forward at shoulder height. Inhale and lengthen your spine upwards; exhale as you twist to the right, and reach your right arm back. Inhale, return, and exhale. Repeat the movement. You can try this a few times on each side, perhaps holding the last repetition for a longer count by placing your other hand on the outside of your knee to help maintain the rotation. Make sure you’re not just waving the arm back-and-forth but actually twisting from your trunk, keeping your hips square to anchor you.”

Breathing exercises

“We need movement to keep our backs healthy and a really simple way to do this while sitting down is to breathe using your diaphragm and allow the abdomen to move in and out as you breathe. This oscillation of the breath allows us to give traction to the spine, creating space between the vertebrae and thereby helping to prevent nerve impingement and disc degeneration. Breathing this way is also less tension-forming for the shoulders and neck. 

“Some of us may have been taught that pulling the abdominals in is good for us. And it is, when we’re lifting, or pushing or pulling, something heavy or doing abdominal exercises, but holding them in a constant state of contraction actually causes them to weaken. For any muscle to function effectively, it has to completely relax between contractions.”

Dead hangs

“Dead hangs are also incredibly helpful for decompressing the lumbar spine (lower back) and opening up the shoulders. The exercise can offer quick relief from sciatica if caused by nerve compression in the lower vertebrae. To do a dead hang, you just hold onto a pull-up bar with fingers facing forward, and let your body hang with your shoulders and core engaged. If you’re new to the exercise, try a 10-30 second hold, and from there you can gradually build up over time to 1 or 2 minutes.”

Consider your workspace

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“Another preventative measure would be to set up your workspace to be more back-friendly. Adjusting your desk and chair so they are at the right height for your body, and placing your keyboard and mouse at the right distance from you is really going to help with maintaining good posture and eliminating unnecessary muscular tension. 

“You should be able to rest your elbows easily on your desk with your forearms more or less parallel with the floor. Make sure you’re sitting on the portion of the pelvis designed to bear our weight – the sit bones rather than the tailbone – and allow the S-curve of the spine to naturally articulate upwards from this base of support.”