My stride comes from my foot — what next?
Congratulations! You’re on the right path! A correct and healthy step should come from your foot, specifically your toes. However, the majority of people walk unnaturally. Their stride tends to come from their hips, pelvic, or thighs, which then causes all sorts of musculoskeletal problems. You, however, correctly start your stride by pushing off your toes. The second part of our challenge will be easy for you:
Walk with your hands on your hips
It might seem simple, but it’s the simplest way to check if you’re losing power when you bounce. It’s common to push off our toes, but then lift our hips and lose some of that momentum. If you keep your pelvis and hips stable, the force from your toes fully transfers to your torso without losing any of its power. This can also help to significantly improve the function of your deep abdominal muscles, your pelvic floor, and your breathing.
Put your hands on your pelvic bones and observe what your pelvis does as you walk. Does it sway? Try to stabilize it consciously — slow down and soften your stride. Try to hold and stabilize your stomach with one hand in front and the other on your back and concentrate on feeling the energy transfer from your feet to your stabilized pelvis. Once you’ve done this in slow motion, you can increase your speed. We also recommend trying this in front of a mirror — your torso should stay stable and upright as you walk.
If your pelvis “floats” horizontally without any significant swinging, then the only thing left to do is congratulate you and invite you to join the third part of our challenge next week. We’ll be working on our footsteps!