Walking form

[Browneyedgirll78]

Good morning y'all!

I've been incorporating walking into my fitness routine and I wanted to hear from y'all about your walking form. I have found that when I really focus on holding the core in tight and tightening each glute muscle with each step I get a higher heart rate. Was wondering if y'all had any tips! Thanks!

[Pratima]

I went to a ChiRunning mini-workshop with Danny Dreyer a few months ago. Eastern connections aside, it's a very core-focused method of working on form. We did a few little drills where we practiced walking with good posture and leading with our centers rather than heads or feet. Walking and running this way become more like controlled falling.

It's pretty complex, and there are day-long ChiRunning/walking workshops you can attend. In a nutshell though, my main takeaways from it were:

1. Focus on posture
2. Lead with your center
3. Be mindful and make adjustments as you go. For example, if your glute starts tightening up, think about your posture again and see if you can make a little adjustment in your stride, etc. to ease that tightness.

When I do this, I find I can walk and run quite a bit faster without it feeling like a lot of work.

[marya]

Teresa Tapp of T-Tapp has some good form tips for walking, including: ribs up (which will bring the traps and lats into alignment and shoulders away from the ears); palms facing forward (preferably; or at least facing the sides of the body) to keep shoulders from pronating; no duck feet (pronated)--keeping weight on the last two toes will help to keep feet aligned with ankles/knees and "unducked".

Regular walking is heel to toe, but in indoor walking workouts it's more often toe-to-heel, which seems to be better for thigh-toning. I do a toe-to-heel stride when walking up hills, and my thighs have significantly thinned as a result.

[Demeris]

Originally Posted by marya

Teresa Tapp of T-Tapp has some good form tips for walking, including: ribs up (which will bring the traps and lats into alignment and shoulders away from the ears); palms facing forward (preferably; or at least facing the sides of the body) to keep shoulders from pronating; no duck feet (pronated)--keeping weight on the last two toes will help to keep feet aligned with ankles/knees and "unducked".

I opened up this thread to post this very thing, but marya beat me to it. Teresa Tapp transformed how I walk (and how I hold myself, and how I get out of a chair).

[flamingoo]

What about your stride? Does it matter if it's longer or shorter? I feel I can go quicker with a shorter stride

[MARIKA]

Shorter stride is better. Shorter and quicker for optimum output!

[Browneyedgirll78]

Wow great insights ladies! Thanks! I am going to try the toe-to-heel tomorrow!

[horsemom2]

My main focus is not to heel strike but land on the arch.

Barb S