How to walk

Walk as nature intended

In pre-history when we began walking on two legs, we walked barefoot. A walk with a shortish stride and midfoot/ forefoot strike. Walking this way, the muscles propelling you forward are the muscles of the foot and ankle, the hip flexors and the buttocks [but not the quadriceps on the front of the thigh]. This involves a high degree of ankle and midfoot flexibility. Much of the time the knee is slightly bent. This method is stable, the risk of falling is small and legs soak up the impact, rather than joints. When this transitions into a run it tends to become a pure forefoot strike, depending on speed. As you will see watching any competitive sprinter; they don't put their heels on the ground at any point. Why does how you walk matter? It is about walking efficiency and joint protection. If our thorax stacks over our pelvis and our pelvis over our feet a midfoot/ forefoot strike means we cushion the impact on the critical joints, soaking up the strain in our muscles instead.

Much of the 'wearing out' of hips and knees in western society comes from walking in shoes with built up cushioned heels and from a different style of walking and running. This product of 'civilisation' is the cool urban style of a long stride with a heel strike, straight leg and a roll from heel to toe using a rigid foot. This is encouraged by wearing trainers with high cushioning and stacked heels. There is a high risk of 'overstriding' and joint stress.

So in summary: there are two ways that people walk that are quite different; to walk with a heel strike, or with a midfoot/ forefoot placement. I advise heels strikers to consider changing their walking pattern to protect their hips, knees and ankles.

I advise you learn how to walk with a mid foot/ forefoot strike.

Step 1 – How are YOU walking?

Get someone to video as you walk towards them, walk away from then and from the side as you walk past them [a panning shot]. Then review the video.

The heel strike: Heel striking means taking a deliberately longish stride, placing the heel down first, quite a long distance from the big toe of the rear foot, keeping the leg fairly rigid, and then rocking forward on the foot to go forwards. The thigh muscles are doing most of the work. This is rather like a goose step approach to marching. The head and trunk tend to tilt forward as the weight rolls from heel to toe.

Midfoot/ forefoot strike: this means a consistently more upright stance. Instead of swinging a heel forward with a straight leg, the knee lifts and the foot is placed more under the Centre of Mass ie the stacked trunk, abdomen and pelvis. Typically, the footstep is much lighter, the cadence is higher [more steps per minute] and the time the foot spends on the floor is less. The posture tends to be more consistently upright.

Step 2 - Look at the video of walking with a midfoot/forefoot strike

Below is a link to a video on YouTube that explains it well. The author has a series of videos that are worth study.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_1RRFXdI44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry44E914doU

Step 3 – Practising

Overall: A natural walk is more like a pony trot. The front of the foot is placed down a few inches in front of the rear foot and to get the motion most of the work is done by hip flexors and buttocks. You can check this by feeling the buttock on the side of the rear leg. Instead of a goose step think of one of those cartoons where the legs are drawn cycling underneath the body in a circular fashion. The stride length is shorter but it is mechanically more bio-efficient.

An important preparation is to tighten the abs and bring the pelvis forward and chest up.

As you place your leading foot on the ground the weight is taken by the big toe and big toe joint, by the little toe and the outside of the foot [the fifth metatarsal if you want the technical term]. At this point you are stable on the front foot, your back heel is raised and you are conscious of the activity of your big and little toes.

A further point to emphasize is to point your big toe in the direction of travel parallel to the midline. To check that you are doing this correctly actually think about the little toe and check that that is also pointing forward. This facilitates the movement of pronation, flattening of the plantar fascia and use of the whole foot for takeoff.

A simple exercise: 'The 100 up' is a Stepping & Posture exercise that gets your started and progressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1EBrxUCiGs

Give it a try. Start slowly; Stop when you get tired; Progress to 100 [50 each leg].
Then progress to faster.