Walk This Way, Not That Way!

The way that you walk can have a direct impact on your likelihood of falling... versus staying on your feet.

In physical therapy school, we had an entire semester class devoted to gait analysis: learning the different phases of the gait cycle, normal gait mechanics, which muscles have to function and fire at each joint and during which phase… sound boring? Then this post is for you! I’m going to cut through all the biomechanics and get straight down to the simple, tangible tips that you can walk away with today (pun intended) to help you feel more confident and strong with your stride. 

Let’s jump right in!

One of the best things you can do for your gait- as well as for your overall mobility and your muscle & joint function- is to improve your posture. So many activities in our lives are forward, meaning we are having to reach or lean in front of us to complete these tasks. Think about typing, writing, driving, reading, lifting boxes or pulling open the car door: we are constantly being pulled forward by many of our day-to-day activities. Over time, and especially as we get older, our bodies can start to show signs of all of these front-focused tasks: our upper back and shoulders can start to round and our trunk can start to slump forward as well. The problem with this when it comes to our walking is that when our upper bodies begin to round forward, it shifts our center of gravity, which in short throws off our balance. Not only that, but it also alters the angles of our muscles’ and  joints’ positions, which impacts how well they are able to function. For example, someone who is walking in a bent-over position will have a very difficult time properly recruiting the muscles in their hips & buttocks the way they should when walking, and so these muscle groups will likely become weaker and weaker, since they aren’t being used normally. 

So when you stand up, before you even start walking somewhere, think to yourself “lift, up, and open.” Lift: picture yourself as a puppet on a string, and someone is lifting you up from the crown of your head. Up: stand up as straight and as tall as you can, with your shoulders stacked directly over your hips. Open: pull your shoulders down and back, so your chest and shoulders are open. Now as you begin walking, try your best to maintain this lifted, open, and upright position. This can be tricky! The more you practice it, the easier it will get, and the less you’ll have to think about it. Your goal is to form a new habit (walking more upright) to replace the old habit of walking slouched or bent forward. 

Now that you’re standing more upright, I want you to take note of your upper body as you walk. Do you stay fairly centered? Do you lean to the side as you step? As I’m sure you have guessed, we want your shoulders to stay more or less centered over your hips as you walk, meaning that you aren’t leaning side-to-side. For various reasons, this type of gait pattern can occur as a result of our hip muscles on the sides of our hips being weak. Our bodies are smart: they are wired to take the path of least resistance, which evolutionarily speaking, is so that our bodies can conserve energy as much as possible. The problem is that this habit lends itself to keeping the strong muscles strong, but the weak muscles become more and more weak, as they are being used less and less. 

So what do we do about this? There are two punches we can throw to combat this type of gait pattern, and they are both equally important: first, we can simply be aware that it is happening, and consciously work to walk more centered, without letting our shoulders lean to the side so much. This may be more difficult for some people than for others, depending on just how weak those muscles have become. A mirror can be a great tool to help you see this, whether it’s the mirror at the gym you are walking towards, or a full-length mirror in your home. Second, we can do specific exercises to strengthen the muscles on the outside of our hips: the hip abductors. Lateral leg raises, clamshells, and standing leg lifts are three great options, CLICK HERE to watch how to do them on Instagram, or CLICK HERE to watch how to do them on Facebook. 

Next let’s talk about your stride length, or the distance between your feet as you walk. Our bodies naturally tend to start taking shorter and more shuffled-type steps as our balance and strength begin to decline. Unfortunately, the research links a shuffling gait pattern to a higher risk of falling, because you are more likely to catch your foot and fall. So when you’re walking, you want to focus on lifting your foot off the ground and placing it ahead of you, so this way you aren’t dragging your feet across the floor as you walk. Your goal is to achieve adequate foot clearance each time you take a step so that you don’t trip or catch your toe as you walk. 

Along with increasing your stride length, you can also remember “heel to toe” as you walk. This means that as you step one foot forward, think about striking the ground with your heel first, and then following with the front of the foot (or “toe”) afterwards. This way, your heel should be the first point of contact on the ground, and then the rest of the foot, and finally the toes follow. The reason that this is helpful is that it helps to prevent what we call a “flat foot contact,” or a gait pattern in which the entire foot is coming into contact with the ground all at the same time. This flat foot contact can feed into what we discussed when it comes to stride length shortening, and it can be a stepping stone towards that shuffling gait that we want to avoid as well. 

Last, let’s look at how quickly you walk. Gait speed has been well researched, and it shows that the slower you walk, the higher your fall risk. One explanation for this could be that if your muscles are weaker and your balance is declining, you won’t be able to walk as quickly or smoothly as you used to. One simple way to work on this is by using a timer. This could be as quick as timing yourself and how long it takes you to walk from one end of your home to the other, or how long it takes you to complete a lap around your home, depending on what your floor plan is like. Write down your time, and the next day try and do the same lap or same distance in slightly less time. Do this each day, and you should see your time creep down, which means you’re getting faster. If you are already an avid walker and have a routine of walking around the block, or even walking 2 miles a day (or more!), you can do the same thing. Time yourself, and keep track of your time each day, to see if you can do the same distance in less time. 

My hope is that you picked up a few useful tools from this post to easily check in and see if your walking needs any improvements or adjustments. Of course, I wanted to make this as simple and straightforward as possible, with the tips that most commonly help the majority of people. However, for each of these categories (posture, gait patterns, stride length, and gait speed) there are numerous causes and reasons why an individual may be exhibiting these impairments or compensations. If you are having trouble with one or more of these, and want more individualized assistance, naturally I would recommend getting evaluated by a physical therapist so they can determine the root cause and help to correct your walking mechanics. 

Happy walking!

Do you have topics that you'd like to see me cover in a future blog post? Email me at [email protected]