Walking correctly is a full body experience with the front and the back of the body equally broad and open, the legs rooted to the ground as the head lifts up to the sky, lengthening the skeleton and creating space in the joints. The side of the body is involved as well because the arms are free to move in all planes. The opposite arm and leg are always alternating which creates a gentle rotation through the spine which spirals energy up and down the body. If we could move like this everything in the body flows much more easily.
To begin walking correctly imagine that your bones stacked directly on top of one another —your ears, shoulders, hips and ankles would all follow a straight line down the body. Instead for most of us our calves fall backward, our thighs sink forward, our lower back overarches, our upper back rounds back and our head juts forward. CoreWalking is meant to align us with gravity, making it our ally instead of our nemesis. When the whole body works together from the center out these imbalances begin to disappear.
There are many different techniques to employ when walking correctly. Let’s look at a three-point plan you can use to begin to make your way into gravity’s flow.
Three Point Plan For Walking Correctly
- Imagine a string is pulling you up from the back of the neck. All lengthening movements should begin from the back of the body. The image of the string pulling up should lengthen that back of the body and the neck and release the front of the throat and lower the chin. Feel how you initiate lengthening up. Most of us tend to lengthen up from the front and we want to reverse that.
- Think of another string pulling you back from the middle of the spine. Imagine breathing into your back ribs as you walk. When you breathe the entire ribcage should move—there is a tendency to move only the front of the ribcage. Imagine that you are walking backwards as much as forwards, balancing all sides of the body.
- Your pelvis should be on top of the legs and stay that way. When one leg steps forward of the pelvis the other leg should be an equal distance behind it. The spine should always be straight up and down with the legs falling equally apart beneath it.
Walking correctly is intimately connected with aging gracefully and it is hard to have one without the other.
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