Vertical Legs & Relaxed Quads
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.
