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Physical Therapist Shows How to Walk Correctly
- chelsie462
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in October 2024. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3YzD55dQNo
Mike: Today, we're going to be talking about walking, and if done incorrectly, how it can cause ankle, knee, hip, back, and foot pain.
Brad: And we're also going to take a step back on the memory lane from some of the vintage footage that really puts us together well.
Mike: So we're going to take a look back in the past, from four years ago, with Bob and Brad explaining how this walking can cause your pain in detail, but what do we want you to stay tuned for?
Brad: We're going to add a critical part we have learned about, walking and changing your walking pattern, which really helps out a lot.
Mike: So let's go back in time.
Bob: The first thing you want to do when you're walking is reduce impact. This is the same truth that can be held with running.
Brad: Sure.
Bob: In fact, there's been a lot of discussion and a lot of books about it, and you want to run with less impact. And I don't know if there have been studies on this, but I see anecdotally a lot of people who tell me they were having a lot of pain throughout their limbs with running. But once they started doing the forefoot running or the midfoot running, their pain levels decreased.
Brad: So what he's talking about is when your foot comes down in front of you, if you strike with your heel first, which is very common, very popular.
Bob: Look what it does, it sends a force up through the leg and into the hip, that ground reaction force, they call that.
Brad: Right, there's no natural shock absorber when you heel strike first, it goes directly through the bones to the joints. But if you come down on your forefoot.
Bob: Or maybe even your midfoot.
Brad: Right. Well, I just want to use the forefoot for this example, look at the cushion that you have.
Bob: Yeah, it's like a shock absorber in itself.
Brad: Right, so your calf muscle and your thigh become more of the shock absorber.
Bob: Yeah, in fact, a lot of times, what they discuss is people who start becoming forefoot runners, their calves get really sore at first, because that's where the force is being taken up right now.
Brad: And I experienced that same thing when I transitioned.
Bob: The other thing is, if you hit your foot first, even while walking, you're really jamming the knee. Because, what if you hit the midfoot or forefoot, you're going to have a little bit of gap in the knee, it's going to act as a shock absorber.
Brad: It's a little flexed.
Bob: Right, a little flexed. So I'm going to show you, let's say we put a peanut in there. This peanut's going to represent the cartilage.
Brad: What happens, Bob?
Bob: Yep, and let's say the knee is completely straight. That's the way, every time you hit.
Brad: There goes the cartilage.
Bob: There goes the cartilage
Brad: And the knee surgeon is smiling.
Bob: Yeah, but if you think about it, it's not happening every time. But when you take 10,000 steps in a day, you know, which is what they're recommending now, that people try to get in 10,000 steps. Think about that 10,000 times.
Brad: Yep.
Bob: Force, force, force, force. So anything you can do to reduce the force is going to help. So one thing you may want to think about when you're walking is to shorten your strides.
Brad: Sure.
Bob: You can increase the cadence, how rapidly you stride. But you should shorten the stride, so it doesn't mean you have to walk slower; it just means you're going to walk with shorter strides. That's what they recommend with running, too. They actually have you run with shorter strides.
Brad: Right.
Bob: Also, if you lean forward slightly, 'cause if you lean back, that's when you're doing that.
Brad: Yeah.
Bob: You know what I mean?
Brad: Almost forced into the heel strike.
Bob: So yeah, if you lean forward a little bit, it's going to make you walk a little faster when you lean forward.
Brad: And it's a very slight lean, because if you lean too far forward, then it's a postural thing, and that's a problem too. So this is a subtle, subtle lean.
Bob: Now, the last thing I was going to mention is a little harder for a lot of people to understand. It is to actually engage your glutes.
Brad: Right.
Bob: Because your glutes are larger muscles, and they actually take a little bit of force off the legs.
Brad: Right.
Bob: So they talk about, again, if you're taking shorter strides, but you actually want to kind of push off and feel your glutes engage, so if you can walk feeling your glutes, you can feel your butt muscles kind of kicking in.
Brad: So you walk around the neighborhood like that, too, sometimes?
Bob: Yeah, and you know, I'm on a list now, I think.
Brad: They do talk, the neighbors.
Bob: Yeah, they do talk. Anyway, that's something you can mess with; it's just a lot easier to shorten the strides and make sure you're hitting on the forefoot or midfoot.
Brad: Sure.
Bob: All right, once you reduce the impact, you've got to be concerned about posture, because I see people running, Brad, and I see them walking, and they're walking like this. And if you walk like this, you're getting a little bit of the jarring.
Brad: Sure.
Bob: And, you know, that's where people talk about, they start getting a headache whenever they walk because they're going like this and they're compressing the spine and the suboccipital area there.
Brad: I call it the gooseneck.
Bob: The gooseneck, yeah.
Brad: But yeah, and again, not to get confused, when he said you lean forward.
Bob: Yeah, we don't want you leaning forward like this.
Brad: Not rounded, it's just a very slight lean.
Bob: Yeah, keeping your body still in a straight posture. Good point, Brad.
Brad: If you're thinking about it, you're walking and feel like you're falling forward.
Bob: Almost falling forward.
Brad: Yeah, but you're not.
Bob: Right.
Brad: But you're not. Just a hint of that direction.
Bob: So, what you're going to do when you're walking, every so often, I want you to do some chin tucks.
Brad: Oh, yes.
Bob: So you're going to go ahead and give a reminder. This is where you want to have your head. You want your ears directly over your shoulders.
Brad: Right, right.
Bob: As much as you can attain that, it's going to be better.
Brad: And this is one you can do without the neighbors talking.
Bob: Right.
Brad: You know, just subtly, and you don't have to do them forever, just two or three of them is a good reminder.
Bob: You might have Gladys Kravitz looking out the window there, and she'll see you right when you're doing it. But, you know, she always talks about everything. She was from Bewitched; she was the nosy neighbor.
Brad: Oh, Bewitched, yeah.
Bob: Gladys Kravitz, I believe, right?
Brad: Now you're pulling out the archives.
Bob: Okay, next one. The same thing, people have that rounded upper back, and the shoulders are rounded and forward. So what you're going to do is you want to grab the wrist behind your back and stretch. And you can do this while you're walking, and it's the same thing, you're going to do it intermittently while you're walking, and this looks okay, doesn't it? If you're doing it, you walk around, it just looks like you're stretching.
Brad: I'm sure the neighbors are used to anything you come up with, Bob. No, that's true, and you're not going to walk like this very long.
Bob: No, no, just a few steps.
Brad: Yep.
Bob: But again, it resets you, it sets you into the right posture.
Brad: Exactly.
Bob: And it feels good, actually.
Brad: Yeah, you get a little stretch in the front, you know it's a postural thing, and you can breathe better with it.
Bob: I do this one every morning before I run, I walk down the hill.
Brad: Yeah.
Bob: And I stretch like this just because it's a good time to stretch, and I like to warm up a little bit, you know, not just go right into the run, I walk.
Brad: Are you done when you get to the bottom of the hill? And then come back up?
Bob: No, no, then I run.
Brad: Oh, I see.
Bob: So, all right, next thing. This is hard for some people to grasp, but actually, there's less weight on your spine when you're walking faster than there is if you walk really slowly and you're lumbering along. So if you're having pain in your back, try picking up the speed a little bit. I've had this work for some patients, and they just are always, you can just see it in their eyes, like "that works?"
Brad: Well, I think you're getting that vertical bounce with a forward motion, that whole concept in that running book, I think that is similar to this.
Bob: Yeah. Whatever, it works for a lot of people.
Brad: Sure.
Bob: Give that a try.
Brad: Yep.
Bob: We're also going to recommend, if you can, obviously, a lot of people can't do this, but it really helps if you can walk in nature. I mean, it really, Brad had quoted a study in which your stress levels decrease. They've compared it to walking in the city, urban areas, and it was obviously much better. There's less ruminating. Like if you have a thought that tends to go through your head.
Brad: And over and over and over.
Bob: Yeah. The nature seems to help break that up, so.
Brad: Well, you can just imagine, we got traffic, you got the fumes from the cars, versus birds singing and watching the grass blowing in the wind.
Bob: Right, you don't have to think about anything else and just keep thinking about it, so.
Brad: We're back to the future now. Mike and I are going to demonstrate the key to walking with your forefoot and engaging the gluteal muscles, which really changes how things work in the mechanics, improving your walking.
Mike: I think we're technically in the present, not the future. But anyway...
Brad: I'm so confused.
Mike: Time travel will do that to you. Anyway, for walking like this, we call it forefoot walking, gluteal walking, bent knee walking, soft knee, it's all the same thing. Anyway, to do gluteal walking for beginners, what we want you to do is to walk normally with your hand on your buttock. Probably do it inside, people might think you're strange. Do your normal walking. If you're a heel striker, just walk like that, feel how much your glutes are engaging.
Mike: Now what I want you to do is to take about 20 steps on your tiptoes.
Mike: This is exaggerated, but feel how much more your glutes are engaging, you should feel the muscles being firmer and contracting more while walking. Now, we're not going to walk like this forever on your tippy toes unless you're a ballerina. So what you want to do is eventually lower down, land with either your forefoot first, or if you land with kind of a mid or flat foot, that is perfectly acceptable. You're going to have to shorten up your stride length, so I'm not going to be taking big, fast steps right away. It's going to feel a little awkward, so just take your time.
Mike: But what we want to emphasize is that most shoes nowadays have built-up heels. It's going to be hard to do, so it's try it in your house, barefoot or in socks, or slippers.
Brad: A thing that I find really helpful is to do it barefoot or in socks or slippers, plus on a hard floor, not a carpeted floor, you really get a good feel of forefoot walking. If you feel your heel strike on a hard floor, it's very clear when you do what Mike said, you'll feel that soft, and your knee will be slightly flexed. There's a slight flexion, which really helps take up some absorption of the impact. A little thing that makes a big difference.
Mike: If you want to check out another video on walking, you can click the video link below. What's it called, Brad?
Brad: "The Walking Mistake Almost Everyone Makes." It goes through this in a little more detail and gives you a few more hints and tricks that you can do to make this more comfortable for you.
Mike: Thanks for watching.
Brad: Have a good day and be careful.
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