The walking experience is primordial. All land based creatures, great and small, do it. Humans have been relying on this primary functional activity of daily life for as long as we have been around. Not to mention the fact that it is essential for getting people from place to place.
We need a minimum of 10,000 steps of movements per day: That’s about three miles. Paleolithic humans walked 12 kilometers a day hunting and gathering, about 8 miles, and ate less. Now we eat more and move less, and as a result have disorders like wearing of the joints - arthritis.
Most of us can walk, and for many people walking has been developed into a high-grade level of functional movement, an exercise that can combine performance with art, with health and fitness.
Walking upright is uniquely human. Though on two legs we cannot match the speed of most animals – we can nevertheless move with direction, determination, purpose and intention. The actions are simple yet wondrous – this art of walking upright with ease, efficiency, and power to go almost anywhere, anytime.
But, two feet are unstable. Since we are inherently unstable, falling forward from one foot to the next (which is what walking is) is what we are designed to do rather than stand still and balanced on two feet
It also means that walking is easier than standing.
For an upright creature with only two legs, all the ground reaction force must find its way via all the joints of the legs, the hips, and the spine.
No easy task. That is, every time I push the ground with my straightened thrusting leg I am structurally designed to be able to direct the force in such a way as to maintain an effortless erect posture that is also moving my entire body through space. And, all this is happening because these forces are also moving through each vertebra.
Sounds difficult?
How am I going to control this?
It isn’t difficult. It does take practice.
Most of us don’t walk well and are not even aware of the fact. We know how to walk – the difference is how to walk with less strain on our joints, which will encourage us to do more.
If we can’t walk easily, or suddenly have trouble – sore hips, knees or poor balance, we realize how precious this skill is – a skill which most of us take for granted
When we walk, our shoulders and hips need to move in opposition to each other, as do our elbows and knees and our hands and feet.
The energy we generate as we walk travels up the spine and articulates with the ribs
This produces a spiral force which turns the torso and is carried through the shoulder girdle and arms. The walker who knows how to access this pathway of energy experiences an elongation of the spine and the neck. (Ever noticed how certain people look tall and beautifully extended in walking, dancing, and performing.)
Walking cannot really be described. To know about it, to have a feeling for it, we must experience the quality of flow, or resonant frequency of motion, within ourselves.
Today the vast majority of the population that walks can be seen to be lacking an efficient and working cooperation between the lower and the upper body. Some of this is due to cultural inhibition of moving the hips, especially for women, but the inescapable reality is this: the hips must move in all the directions dictated by their structure.
Points to remember:
1. Not only must the hips move but the action must connect directly into the upper body via the spine
2. When the spine is rotating it actually generates a spiral energy
3. The few people who walk or run this way, appear tall, elongated, aligned, and even graceful. They appear to be on the edge of gliding over the surface with a light rebounding touch of the feet.
Watch the great efficient runners, like Michael Johnson, and you see the same phenomena. Well, here is the good news. Such walking is available to almost anyone, young or old.
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