When’s the last time you practiced walking?
Probably not since you were less than 2 years old, right? Most of us stop practicing a thing we think we’ve mastered. We just do it the way we do it, and never think about it again.
But what if you are doing it wrong?
What if your walk is walking you toward pain?
You might be surprised how little it takes, and how likely it is that you are creating your own future of bad knees, bad hips, bad back, bad shoulders, bad neck.
Gravity doesn’t just hold you onto the earth; it pulls you toward it. If you aren’t fighting against that, you are actively allowing your bones to crush together. When your doctor says “bone on bone compression” - you did that.
You’ve got to walk tall, and lift the front of your rib cage a little. Open the chest. Pull the back of your head into line with the back of your body.
And put your toes forward. We sit and sleep and stand with our toes pointing away from us, and many many many people walk that way too. So you overuse the outer hip and leg muscles, and underuse the amazing power and potential of your inner hip and leg muscles. And eventually, it all falls apart.
I swiped the last picture from a video ad for walking to lose weight. Two strong looking folks just strolling along. But watching their feet all the way to their hips shows me they are walking their way towards pain.
Ask someone to shoot a video of you walking. If one or both of your feet swings away from front and center, consider fixing that.
Practice walking again.
Toes in front.
Heart proud.
Head on top, not in front.
​Don’t worry, your brain will always get home at the same time as the rest of you; it doesn’t have to be rushing out in front.
Walk with your hips, not your head.
It’s simple things that make a big difference.
Just practice.
It’s #theyogayouneed

In another post, I wrote about practicing how to walk correctly, because if you’re like most people, you don’t. Nonetheless, the muscles in your hips and legs are pretty skillful at moving you along. They let you roll over your feet, bouncing across the planet, day after day, year after year. But later in life, when you’ve got bone on bone compression, arthritis, or you fall and break a hip, you find out that mobility without stability isn’t good enough. We need both - especially in those hard working hips.
I practice stillness in the walking line as a way to maintain stable strength and balance in my hips, and it’s a practical, easy tool for anyone.