Go ape is one of my favorite instructions for teaching people how to walk correctly. I don’t really want you to walk like an ape as much as walk differently from the way you walk now and if you go ape, it will definitely be different.
When working privately with clients I invariably hear “I feel like an ape”, or “I feel like a monkey”, and I couldn’t be happier.
Again, it isn’t that you really want to walk like an ape, though some people do need to go that far to get out of pain, it is nearly impossible to go from the old you that leans backward and tucks your pelvis (trust me, that’s what you do), to a new you that walks correctly without shifting a little in the go ape direction before you end up with good posture and movement patterns.
The willingness to change, and have fun with that change, is essential to finding better posture and movement patterns but it has to include an understanding that it is nearly impossible to go from bad to good without a journey to the other side; which admittedly might feel weird but will serve you in the end.
I have a very good posture and think that I am an excellent representative for what I offer, but I have yet to meet anyone who could change their posture to something that resembles mine in an instant. You need to go ape at least a little bit.
Look at the three pictures above. In the middle is my best available posture.
On the left is who I was before I changed my walking patterns, and on the right is where you might need to go if you want to end up like the middle picture.
If you are suffering from chronic or acute pain, you might have to go ape more than most, and I can almost guarantee that it will feel better than leaning backward, old you.
Changing your posture and movement patterns is incremental but you have to start somewhere.