To develop better balance and a better walking gait, one aspect of alignment to practice is standing with the hips over the heels. For numerous reasons (such as tight/shortened hamstrings, tight/shortened hip flexors & quads, excessive upper spine curvature (hyperkyphosis), and weakened hip muscles to name a few) many of us have adopted a stance where our hips "fall" or hang forward of the ankles. This leaning forward causes excessive foot tension and an overuse of the front side of the legs. To correct many of these issues, simply develop the habit of standing with the hips resting vertically over the ankles or heels. You may feel like you will fall backward or that you have to fold your upper half forward to balance at first. This is simply due to the backside of the legs not having the coordination and strength to hold you up. Over time, this strength will develop and will help you find balance, better posture and a more robust use of the posterior chain of the legs. While walking: Start in neutral stance with hips back over the heels and then take a walk. Every once in a while, stop and check if your hips are thrusting forward and if you can center the hips over the heels.

Walking with the feet pointing straight ahead will help with the health of the bones of the feet, ankles, knees, hips, and back all the way up the body. Many of us have developed a turn out of the foot which can bypass using the calf muscles and affect the function of the hips as well as cause deterioration of all the joints up the body. A neutral alignment of the feet is when the outer edges of the feet point forward and create parallel lines to each other. This may seem very pigeon-toed to many people, but over time your feet and toes will adjust and it will seem natural. However, our joints have adapted to a certain way of walking over a lifetime and to force yourself to walk with neutral feet may put strain on your joints if you try to do it perfectly right away. Instead, while walking, just think of your feet as turning slightly inward or your heels as pushing slightly outward to progress toward neutral over time. Then while standing, practice finding a fully straight forward, neutral foot.

In order to get the muscles of the hip to drive our walking gait, we need to practice making our legs vertical and relaxing the quadriceps. We started this with getting our ankles at pelvis width apart and shifting our hips back over the heels, but now let's see if we can straighten the knees. We may have been taught to always keep some flexion in the knees to absorb shock while walking. But with a posterior driven gait, we are aiming to reduce if not eliminate any falling phase of the gait cycle and therefore we won't have to worry about absorbing the shock from falling onto the next foot. Also, when the knee stays in flexion, it overuses the quad, compresses the knee joint causing wear and tear over time, and inhibits the hip and butt muscles from doing their job. Test to see if you can straighten the knees and relax the quads: start by hinging forward at the hip and shifting your weight backwards with knees straight. This puts you in a position to take some of the weight off the leg directly. Then see if you can flex and release the quads. Look for the ability to lift and lower the knee caps. Then gradually bring your body upright testing the quads along the way until you can stand vertically with legs straight and quadriceps relaxed. Then take a walk, and just think about walking with the legs a little straighter than you're used to. Every once in a while, pause and check out if you can relax the quads dropping the kneecaps down.