Your Walking Checklist
Hiking in Chaing Rai, Thailand. Our honeymoon, 2018. My new husband displaying the perfect arm and leg swing in opposition as we walk through a bamboo forest.
The weather is perfect to get in walks anytime of the day. With daylight savings ending, it limits walking in light hours, but that can motivate us to get out there early. I walk almost everyday, as I just love being outside, seeing and meeting my neighbors (it’s quite social!), listening to a book, podcast or music, and having the early morning to myself. As I usually have early morning clients, my walks get pushed later, but I still get it in. It’s something I can’t live without!
Walking is the most basic and natural movement we don’t want to lose as we get older. It’s our body's way of propelling us through the world. Keeping up a walking practice is as important as brushing your teeth. Find and make the habit to get out there. I am here to give you a checklist of alignment and mechanics to explore while walking.
The Ground
For me, there is something magical about being able to walk out the door to take a walk, but I am aware I am mostly walking on asphalt and concrete. The feet and body benefit from an uneven surface as it creates and develops strong proprioception (balance) and connection with the ground. Your feet send messages up the body with over 200,000 nerve sensors on the bottom of your feet, relaying information about ground topography and how the body should respond. To get my feet away from the monotony of flat, I walk on different surfaces, like grass, gravel, dirt, even try to balance on the curb. Balance is also something we can lose as we get older. A hiking trail has that uneven surface built into it. There is no better way to work your balance and your entire body than to train it regularly by walking on a hilly trail. I had to bold that truth! I also had a client cure her sacrum challenges not in the studio, but by hiking three times a week. Her body was missing the natural mechanics of walking. And what a gift to get your nature and morning fresh air on too! AND If you already have balance issues and don’t feel comfortable on hills or uneven ground, walking on the flats is still better than nothing!
The Hills
If you can’t get to a trail, find some hills to walk or hike. It also trains the body by building strength for acceleration (uphill) and deceleration (downhill) muscles in your body. Going uphill: you want to think about leaning into the hill from your ankles, and not leaning from your low back. I see this a lot, and I am tempted to go up to the person and say “Use your butt!” but as you can see, that would be highly inappropriate. So I am here to tell that to you! When you lean into the uphill with your ankles, you make the back of the legs where your big muscles are engage. Not only does this propel you up the hill but the spine is able to be lengthened and supported by our “bipedal hind legs”. Plus you can get a nice butt when you use it, so bonus incentive! It’s also helpful to use your arms with a good swing to help you uphill. Punching them into the air also works your upper body and increases your heart rate. Going downhill: Momentum is your friend, but also your foe. You can use the momentum to walk fast for efficiency, but you have to control that so you don’t faceplant in the process. Plus you also want the body to absorb the shock too. Down a hill, I like to lean away from the decline through my ankles. That engages my abdominal wall, which allows me to decelerate my movement. You want to watch that you don’t lean away through your lower back and crunch down in there. Emphasizing pulling the elbows back going downhill will also help to slow you down. Take a moment in your walks to observe what your ankles are doing, especially as we go up and down hills, allowing freedom in the pelvis and ribcage.
The Mechanics
The body moves in opposition. As you step out with your right leg, your left arm swings forward, creating your pelvis to rotate one way, but your ribcage to rotate the other.
Take a moment in to observe this phenomenon you might not have realized exists. The arms should swing in a parallel relationship to each other, fists going up in the air, rather than crossing the body. Again, the arm swing helps assist in going up the hills by engaging our upper body, and rotating the rib cage. Going downhill, the arms pull back for control while pelvic rotation helps the legs handle the momentum.
The Center
We don’t want to stop that twisting movement in our center by pulling in the abdominals too hard and stiff. But we do want to make sure the front body is not arching forward, so alignment is still important. Pull the bottom ribs and belly button towards the spine to support it in its full lengthened expression. Engage the abdominal wall about 25% of full contraction, so there is still freedom to move in that rotation as well as appropriate engagement for walking.
The Footwear
I always have a lot to say about this and have here. The next Curious Mover will be exercises for your foot health. Your feet lose their ability to act like a spring system when you have too much cushioning in your shoe. The foot is built with 4 arches of spring and support. It has the ability to open and flatten into the ground when there is weight over it, then push you forward as a rigid lever to move. The more you rely on shoes for “support”, the more the foot loses its ability to work properly. As the foundation, this affects the whole body in its ability to absorb shock and have muscles and ligaments working properly! Unfortunately, you can’t go cold turkey into minimal shoes, but start to graduate from less cushion gradually! And walk barefoot wherever you can, especially if you still have a healthy foot.
Final bullet points
Walking on a hilly trail provides:
The whole body working
Strengthening of acceleration and deceleration muscles
Heart rate - opportunity for cardiovascular work
Fresh air (morning is best) and nature
Proprioception balance work
Mobility and strength of your feet, minimal shoes recommended
The most natural way to move your body
If you don’t use it, you lose it - we need walking and balance to stay strong into our golden years
It’s free!
So go out there, get your walk on. Put it in your schedule at least twice a week. Let your arms, legs, pelvis and ribs swing away! Enjoy being outside, meet your neighbors, listen to something good, listen to silence, invite a friend, have a date, smell some flowers, forage fruit, and let me know what book you are listening to!