Walking Well and Standing with Ease

Walking Well and Standing with Ease

Walking well: There is a moment of ease when the body is upright in such a way as to minimize the muscular forces working to hold us up.

That is the goal of good posture.

Walking can also be an effortless event carried along by the force of gravity.

It isn’t easy to find and cultivate this ease but it is worth it and once you get a taste, you will want more.

As we learn to enter this place of ease on a regular basis— ease in the body can become a constant in our lives.

Instead… most of us live in a body where the muscles are asked to do way more than necessary.

Walking well requires a body that is balanced in its alignment.

Is yours? Stand up and see for yourself.

Stand with the feet about four inches apart and pay attention to how you hold yourself in space.

• Where is the weight in your feet?
• What are your calves doing?
• Are your thighs sinking forward or are your legs directly underneath your pelvis?
• Is your pelvis tucked under or stuck out, or maybe in between?
• Try to imagine the base of your ribcage and feel if it is level with both the floor and the pelvis.
• Last but so far from least, is your head positioned directly over your shoulders?

Walking well is not usually an option because most people have fallen out of postural alignment and therefore won’t be able to move as designed.

See if the pictures in this post resonate with you. The dude on the left is classicly bad posture.

• The calves sink backward taking the weight of the feet into the heels.
• The backward movement of the calves is counteracted by a forward thrust of the femur (thigh) bones, which drag the pelvis forward and down at the back.
• This action arches the lower back and drags down the middle back, which is one of the factors creating the tilting ribcage.
• The upper back pulls backwards to counter the lower back moving forward and finally the head begins its journey forward because nothing in the spine is providing any support at the neck.
• This might not be you exactly but the odds are if you look around as you walk down the street you will find many that fit the bill.

The good news is it is not hard to start to change and to start walking well.

Awareness is the beginning of a body’s renaissance.

Simply begin to pay attention to how you stand and how you walk.

One thing to notice in the guy on the left is the top and bottom halves of the body are out of alignment.

The top leans back while the bottom leans forward.

Play with the feeling of getting the bottom half of the body underneath the top. It might feel really odd, and it doesn’t hurt to use a mirror to help with the visuals.

If you can find this alignment, the body can begin to relax with every opportunity it gets.

Here is an easy way to begin your adventure with a new posture and walking pattern.

Lean forward.

This should release your buttocks and allow your quadriceps muscles (thigh) to take a little less of the load.

This is a simple and very valuable first step towards walking well.

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