Once you've practiced Hip Listing and balancing for a while, notice where your weight is on your feet. Pay attention if your weight has shifted forward and your quadriceps tighten and try to shift your weight back onto the heels. While Walking: Pause in a hip list every once in a while and see if you can actively control where your weight shifts on your feet. Practice shifting your weight from the ball of the foot back to the heels and vice versa. Then continue on your walk.
Read MoreEngaging the backside of your legs will strengthen your stance, improve your balance and begin to develop your posterior driven gait.
Read MoreThe Monster Walk is another way to develop your abductor muscles of the leg and gain control of your hip list. Walk sideways! It's a silly walk for sure - but very effective.
Read Morewithout lifitng your heel from the ground, drag a foot back to assess your ankle flexion and hip extension in your walk. practice walking with your back heel staying on the ground.
Read MoreUsing the standing leg to pull back drives your body forward and with the hip list we've practiced, we can swing the next leg forward and softly lower the heel to the ground.
Read MoreWhen you start a pendulum swinging, you pull it in one direction and let it go to swing the other way. Our legs can be thought of as swinging in this way from the hip. But the direction we pull the leg matters. We don't necessarily want to actively pull our legs forward, but rather the action is on pulling the leg backwards and then the forward swing is a passive "release". This way we're using more of the posterior chain of the legs. To get a feel for this, hip list to raise one leg from the ground and keeping a neutral pelvis, pull the lifted leg backwards. You may feel your butt muscles and hamstrings engage. Then relax that tension and see if you can allow your leg to passively swing forward. Make a game of it. Stand on one leg and pull the lifted leg back, release it forward and set it down to take the next step. Of course, when walking normally, the pulling back phase happens when your foot is on the ground, but this is a nice exercise to get the sensation of when to engage the muscles and when to relax.
Read MoreA good way to illustrate why a posterior driven gait is a more efficient way of walking is to think of the analogy of a boat on the water. If you have an oar and wish to paddle the boat you won't get very far by just reaching the paddle forward and dropping it in the water. Instead, you need to drive the oar into the water and pull backwards in order to propel the boat forward. The legs may be thought of in the same way: in order to propel your body forward, you need to drive the standing leg into the ground and then pull that leg backwards. It's helpful to think of the motion from coming from the back of the knee or thigh rather than the foot, because if the focus is on the foot, there may be a tendency to bend from the knee. To extend the metaphor, your oar in the boat will not be very effective if it's floppy like a spaghetti noodle and your leg is more effective if the knee if the whole leg is sturdy and the knee doesn't collapse. Try walking thinking of the legs like oars in a boat.
Read MoreWe started the program with finding a gait width that is pelvis width apart. That helps us develop a straighter, vertical leg that will increase our hip strength, stability and balance. However, while walking the needs of the terrain really determine where you need to place your feet. So, it's a good idea to practice variable widths in stance and walking gait when you come upon things in your path such as a curb, a log, or even rail road tracks. This gives you an opportunity to walk with one foot in front of the other like on a balance beam. Then you can alternate between pelvis width gait and balance beam gait to master whatever terrain you come upon.
Read MoreAside from conventional shoes, another way our bodies are "casted" to move less is by walking consistently on flat and level ground (sidewalks, cement, the floors in buildings). To add more movement into your body and to increase your balance and stability, find ways to walk off the beaten path and look for variety in terrain. Even stepping from a sidewalk onto the grass is a good addition to the input you are giving your body. Plus, looking for side paths adds more adventure to your walk!
Read MoreArm swing is an important component of your walking gait in that it counterbalances the swing of the opposite leg. Tension in the upper body can suppress this reflexive motor program, but through awareness and practice, you can awaken this natural movement! Also, notice how the arms are swinging: do they reach forward or do they reach back? How you reach your arms probably corresponds with how you reach your leg. We want to build a posterior driven gait, so just as you want to drive your leg backwards instead of reaching forwards, you want to practice reaching your arms backwards instead of reaching forwards!
Read MoreHere's a variation of the "Monster walk" but to travel forward rather than sideways. When you do a regular hip list, your waist on the side of the lifted leg shortens as that side of your pelvis comes closer to your ribs. It this variation, try to hold one side of your body stiff like a plank so your waist doesn't shorten, and when you lift the leg, tilt the whole body to the side. It's another way to practice the hip list emphasizing control of the lateral hips, but it looks a lot like the classic Frankenstein's Monster's walk!
Read MoreThis is a silly walk that emphasizes the hip list, arm and leg swing, and engages the backside of the body. Hinge at the hip to pitch the upper body forward, while sending your weight back on the heels (as you would for a forward fold hamstring stretch). From that position, list onto one leg and swing the opposite arm and leg together. Swing the leg forward to take a step, but try to keep all the weight on the heel. Step onto the leg that swung forward and repeat the process. Put it together to walk forward: still pitched forward in the upper body, hinged at the hip, swinging opposite arm and legs, and keeping the weight on the heels. This is akin to a classic Groucho Marx walk. As you feel the engagement of the backside of your legs moving your forward, gradually hinge to stand upright, and continue your walk.
Read MoreTo get a better sense of how hard your heel is striking the ground and to tell if you are controlling the downward phase of the hiplist, try using earplugs! When you wear earplugs you might be able to hear the reverberation caused by each heel strike. If you are falling hard onto the next foot, it will probably seem pretty loud. If you are controlling the descent of your hiplist, your heel strike should be much quieter. For fun, try to walk silently.
Read MoreTry a slow motion walk while keeping the neutral knee-pit. Try it step by step: - Neutral stance - Externally rotate your thighs - Hip list to stand on one leg - Step forward - BUT before putting your weight down onto the next leg: externally rotate that thigh again. - Engage the front leg to pull your body forward while hip listing onto that leg. Keeping the external rotation. - Repeat the process again taking another step forward. Walking in slow motion is a great way to watch the tendency of the hips to collapse into internal rotation, and then to train your external hip rotators to remain engaged and keep your hips stable.
Read MoreHaving mobile joints in your feet is important for being able to maintain balance, increasing the sensory feedback from your feet to your brain, and for your hip's ability to stabilize your leg while walking. It may seem prudent to avoid stepping on uneven objects on your path, but for the sake of mobilizing your feet, I suggest pausing your walk and spending a little time stepping onto an uneven and hard surface. This is easier done if you walk barefoot or with minimalist shoes, but you can practice simply by taking off your shoes for a short period during a walk. Find an object that is hard and uneven such as a rock and simply put your foot over it and apply pressure down. Put as much pressure as is tolerable but not painful. It should feel like a stretch. Shift your foot so that you apply pressure to as many parts of the foot and as many angles as possible. As you apply pressure, the intention is to allow the joints of the foot to mold over the object. The more your foot can conform to the earth underneath you, the better able you will be to adjust your balance and gait.
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