For at least 100 000 years now, man has been developing as a two-legged creature. You could say we’re the most fully developed balancing artists ever created. We can jump, climb, run, walk, stand, etc. and still maintain perfect balance. We have a very well developed steering and control system which allows us to do all this. Sensors in the soles of our feet, our joints, neck, vision and experiences are all components of this system. We automatically and instinctively adjust our posture depending on what we’re standing on.

For hundreds of thousands of years, leaning slightly forwards has been the normal posture for us: this gives us the best starting point for balance. Our backs are designed to withstand leaning forwards slightly. The vertical line runs right through the centre of the foot, and our body weight is distributed across the entire foot. This is our optimum posture. The load is distributed best over the discs when the spinal column is S-shaped, thus permitting the maximum damping effect to be achieved by our disc.

When you stand on a hard floor, another reflex is instinctively triggered. Your steering and control system reckons that the firm surface will allow you to save heels, the vertical line runs through your skeleton and legs, your pelvis is tilted backwards, the curve of your back straightens out and you become “straight-backed”.

Our backs were never designed to work in this position. They were made to lean forwards slightly. When you stand on a hard surface, your lumbar region and hips are particularly overloaded. Your entire weight rests on your heels: essentially, you’re standing as if you were on stilts and your heels are overloaded. Then your knees end up pointing outwards and are also overloaded.