Posture makes perfect

Victor Barker was born in England in 1922. He was educated at Brentwood School, and then spent five years in the Royal Air Force, first as a pilot on a torpedo-dropping squadron, then as a ferry pilot. This took him to most of the African continent, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and Pakistan.

He was surprised by and admired the grace, good posture and flexibility of all the peoples of these regions, even the aged, and wondered why Europeans had lost these admirable characteristics. An interest posture had already developed from weight-training, which, against all current advice, he had used to improve his sprinting.

After the war he studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London. In 1955, he emigrated to New Zealand and entered general practice. His interest then was in the treatment of heart and circulation problems by slowly graduated exercises. Again, he found his ideas unacceptable and before their time. However, when Arthur Lydiard, the famous athletics coach, developed the jogging movement, he became the first doctor to be involved. When jogging became universally popular, his interest returned once more to posture, muscles and joints.

For seven years he practiced on the island off the coast of New Zealand, populated largely by retired people, and found that his ideas worked. He has returned to Auckland, where he consults in osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and backs. He is also medical advisor to the Waiwera Health Spa and Longevity Centre. He believes that posture and joint mobility are the keys to Aging.