Some of us learned basic anatomy in school, but we didn’t learn functional movements, nor did we practice them. Long gone are the deportment classes where you walked with a block on your head. When I tell people that we teach walking they respond with surprise – don’t we know how to walk? Well, when you have a little baby you’re going to teach her how to use a fork, you’re going to teach him how to zip up his pants. The day they stand up to walk you simply say, “Yaaaay!” and then leave them to their own devices. Usually we learn our walking and other functional movements by imitation. We tend to imitate those we bond with, usually our parents – but also grandparents, babysitters, aunts and uncles. Our first movements are always about who was closest to us. So we essentially walk how our parents walk. I have seen instances of kids needing occupational therapy because their father is gimpy and the kid starts walking with that kind of limp.
This means that if you have a mother who has sciatica and you love your mother and walk like her, you’re likely to have sciatica later in life. The flip side is if you are a mother with sciatica and you have a two-year-old daughter, you have incentive to not only get out of your pain but also spare your daughter a lifetime of your unhealthy conditioned patterns that she’ll learn.
From our perspective, if you have good posture and walking patterns then everything is good. You’re going to breathe well; you’re going to have good blood flow; you’re going to have good nervous energy; you’re going to be happier about life. No joke. You’ll probably love your dog more. Everything works when you have good posture and walking patterns. If you walk and stand well, you are going to minimize the wear and tear on the body. You’ll minimize the likelihood of chronic injuries and the likelihood of poor conditioned patterns. You won’t do as much compensating for injuries or imbalanced muscles. You’ll be more fully evolved!
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