Medieval walking you say? Color me curious.
I’m not sure if it was a coincidence but after writing today’s blog post about walking barefoot, a good friend sent me this video that I love more than most things I have watched lately.
It is essentially about walking on the forefoot rather than heel to toe and readers of the blog know that I am a fan of running on the forefoot, having changed my technique to forefoot running over a decade ago.
I don’t teach walking on the forefoot but the video is quite compelling in its argument and I love the references to medieval martial arts.
What I do teach is not dissimilar to the approach laid out in the video. While I teach a heel to toe walk, I emphasize the need to get off the heel as quickly as possible. What I find is most people employ posture and walking technique that puts way too much weight, and spends way too much time, on the heel.
Another cool thing about the video is that the narrator’s demonstration of slouching posture displays the backward lean that I suggest everyone adopts in their posture and movement patterns. But when he shows his version of the slouch he is leaning backwards to round forward which is an accurate display of modern posture.
The slouch, which is really a rounding forward of the shoulders forces the upper back backwards.
I have a long hike planned for tomorrow morning and you can be sure I will be forefoot walking to check out this intriguing approach.