Walking and Natural Grace
By Douglas Wisoff, Physical Therapist
(Official Outfitter of the 3-Day Walk)
Click here to
view/download article in PDF Format
 We
have all witnessed the beauty of an excellent athletic or dance performance
with a sense of awe. The same experience can also be triggered by just
seeing someone with really good posture walking loosely, lightly, fluidly,
and with a sense of effortlessness. What is it that sets this kind of
movement apart from less esthetically pleasing movement?
 The
answer to this questions lies in the qualities we perceive and how they
impact us. It is the power that resides in the lightness, freedom of movement
and ease that resonates with something in us directly.
Any one of us could walk like this kind of ease and effortlessness, but
instead we often find ourselves feeling heavy, tired, with stiff muscles
and painful joints, even after walking only one or two miles.
 We
take walking for granted, and don’t realize that there may be a better
way to do it. It doesn’t occur to us that we could have a hand in
mastering this mundane everyday movement.
As a physical therapist I work with lots of people: some are injured
due to the way that they use their bodies, others are athletes that want
to improve their performance, and then there are people that just want
to feel better in what they do. With most people, I start with the most
fundamental movement-walking. As a person learns to walk correctly, they
begin to learn how easy it is to transfer those skills to other sports
and activities.
 Since
we all do so much walking, it is in our best interest do it in the most
efficient manner possible. This enables us to: save energy, decrease wear
and tear on the body and joints, avoid “garden variety” overuse
injuries (such as shin splints, low back, hip, knee or foot pain), and
most importantly, discover the joy that lies in achieving our health and
fitness goals. We can trade in the bumpy ride for a new smooth ride.
Underlying effortless movement are a few principles that are fundamental
to learning the specific skills associated with walking. And the good
news is that these skills are easily learned. The clumsy, the gifted and
all the rest of us can benefit from walking correctly.
Eliminating Unnecessary Movement
There are two kinds of unnecessary efforts. The first are the out of
symmetry movements, like a torso that sways side to side. The second kind
is the excess tension/grip that we hold in our skeletal muscles. Both
of these unnecessary efforts cause us to be inefficient and apply too
much unnecessary force to all sorts to things we do. Including simple
everyday things like brushing our teeth or walking. This results in all
sorts of aches and pains in muscles, ligaments, joints and tendons.
Getting Grounded
Try this simple exercise: Stand fully upright, find the place on the
bottom of your feet where your weight falls midway between the heels and
balls of the feet. When you find this place relax your feet so that they
can spread out a little. Next, relax your lower abdominal muscles and
then your pelvic floor muscles. Keeping these areas relaxed, take a deep
breath filling up your abdomen, chest and shoulder area. On the out-breath
relax, soften your chest and let the muscles of your torso drop as if
they were draping your bones. If you maintain a fully upright posture,
your skeleton, and not your muscles will now be doing more of the work
of holding you up. Take a short walk and focus on keeping yourself relaxed
down into the ground. You may discover that you feel heavier and lighter
at the same time, the paradox of being more grounded. Pain and injury
is often caused by not being grounded in our movement, and at the same
time can be resolved by learning how to ground out. Being grounded helps
us to identify and release the excess and unnecessary tension in our muscles.
CORE WALKING or Efforting from the Right Place
Each muscle of the body has its job description. If it is called upon
to do all or part of another muscle’s work, it eventually rebels
in the form of tightness and pain somewhere. Using the right muscles for
the job of walking means learning how to access the large muscles of our
core for power production, and allowing the quads, hamstrings, and calves
to relax and be good helpers.
 Try
this: Alternate marching and walking, while letting your legs relax.
Pay careful attention to the role of the hips and visualize your movement
as originating from your center. Practicing this can help protect and
free up the knees.
Learning how to walk correctly can give us miles and miles of pleasure.
When we become relaxed and fluid we are able to recycle effort and energy.
Then we can become energy efficient and injury resistant!
© Copyright 2003 by Douglas Wisoff. All
Rights Reserved.
|
