When 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.

Audio Version