Is this the cure for my crippling back pain?

As a girl, JENNI MURRAY balanced books on her head for perfect posture. Now 67 and in constant agony, she’s trying a more scientific approach ...

As a young woman I had posture to be proud of. I stood tall, spine straight, head erect, shoulders back and walked with a studied elegance that was often remarked upon. ‘such a smart, upright girl!’ people said.

It had not been achieved without a great deal of conscious effort.

‘sit up straight, don’t slouch, tummy in! What are you, growing into a woman or a sack of potatoes?’ ah yes, my perfectly erect, beautiful mother never held back in her efforts to improve every part of me, even to the extent of daily exercises to ensure I had catwalk-worthy capabilities when putting one foot in front of the other.

she had read somewhere that perfect posture could be achieved by regular repetition of a method used by the famous model agencies to train their aspiring Vogue cover girls.

Three times a week, after school, and on a saturday morning, she would produce a little pile of two or three hefty volumes, place them on my head and require me to walk around the sitting room, sit at the table, stand, walk about again — half an hour in all — without the books falling off my head.

she knew I was not model material. I was neither thin enough nor adequately motivated, but she held to her absolute conviction that the exercise would transform her somewhat rough and tumble, tomboy daughter into a composed Princess fit for a Prince.

The posture part was achieved and, despite years of riding and falling off horses, I never suffered from back pain and never disappointed her with anything less than impeccable posture.

all that changed in my mid-50s, when there was breast cancer, chemotherapy, hip replacement and extended periods sitting in front of a computer.

The aches and pains began. First a dull ache in the middle of my lower back, with an occasional seizure and trip to the osteopath. Then came the sciatica, where the dullest of perpetual aches seizes the side of my spine and travels down my right leg. nor am I at all unusual. For the most recent statiscomes tics on how many people suffer with back pain are alarming.

Nearly one in ten people worldwide is suffering. eight in every ten of those who sit or drive for long periods will be in trouble. and in the uK, an average of 30.6 million working days are lost each year through musculoskeletal problems.

Cheyne Voss, a consultant physiotherapist, is uncompromising about the degree to which bad posture is at the root of all these aches and pains. The spine, he explains, is designed to be upright. We all sit down for far too long — and badly.

laptops are the worst culprits, he says, because the screen is too low and the keyboard too close. We slouch, the spine bends, nerves are pinched, muscles are shortened. My sciatica, he says, is merely an extension of my lower back pain as the disc in the spine nips at the sciatic nerve.

so when I heard of upright go, a new gadget designed to improve posture, I leapt at the chance to try it out. or I would have leapt, if I could in my agony.

upright go is the technological equivalent of the books on the head method so loved by my mother. The device is a small piece of white plastic which with a charging cable, adhesives with which you secure it to your upper spine and instructions for connecting the device to an app on your phone or iPad which will monitor your progress. you set the level of vibration you’re prepared to accept through the app and then you have a choice — training or tracking.

During ‘training’ the gadget on your back will vibrate every time you veer from the required upright position. My training plan began with seven minutes on day one, rising steadily to 20 minutes by day seven and 36 minutes by day 12. To my amazement the constant vibratory reminders kept me perfectly upright, as was recorded most satisfyingly by the app, which works out how well you’re sitting. only one problem — you are warned not to exceed the recommended time ‘training’. By day six I was so impressed by own performance, I over-ran the time. It should have been 18 minutes of perfect posture and I did 24 minutes. By that evening the sciatic pain had kicked in big time, so on day seven I obeyed instructions — two 10-minute sessions, with a 40-minute break between the two. Perfect score and no pain!

When the training period is completed for the day you switch to ‘tracking’ through the app. It’s when you check your results at the end of the day that you realise how sloppy you can be as you go about your daily life without those constant little reminders to warn you to stay upright.

I was quite alarmed to find on day one that I’d worn the gadget for an hour and been upright for 91 per cent of the time, but by day six I’d been tracked for three hours and 31 minutes and had slouched for two hours and 43 minutes — that’s only 31 per cent of the time standing tall. There’s clearly room for improvement. The company that promotes upright go put me on to their physio, sammy Margo, who has top tips for perfect posture. The first is BBC — when you sit at your desk or in a meeting it’s Bottom in the Back of the Chair. Then an analysis of your work station is recommended. you should make sure it’s set up to be ergonomically sound. Consider investing in a standing desk.

HanDBags are often a problem, she says. I’ve always called mine my life-support system, containing as it does my wallet, make-up, diaries, medication, books etc. Margo recommends emptying a heavy shoulder bag of unnecessary items or swapping it for a lightweight version, or a rucksack.

For those long, tedious meetings that have to be endured at work it’s recommended that you try standing and walking about a bit to alleviate the problem of sitting too long, and standing up to make a phone call.

Then there’s your bed to think about. apparently, if the mattress is older than eight years it will have deteriorated by 75 per cent and may cause bad posture while you’re sleeping. you should think about a new one.

The final piece of advice is to invest in your posture because it’s with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. good posture doesn’t just help with back pain, it improves confidence, appearance and mental and physical wellbeing.

Well, after only two weeks of using the gadget I can feel a tiny bit of strengthening around my core and a slight easing of the constant pain I’ve suffered for so long.

I hate to admit it, but, Mum, on this and on so many other things, you were right.