Walking - Why not kick up your heels - HOW

Our habit of the week is to push off from our heels when we walk or run.  When we do this, we recruit the correct gluteal muscles, which are the muscles we evolved to walk with.  we’ve been walking this way for millennia

The Primal Posture Course I did this year called this “Glide Walking”.  Esther Gokhale, the author wants us all to walk “as a series of forward propulsion, not falls”

When we walk we want to propel ourselves

1.     So, we use the mobility of the shoulders to swing our arms, especially to the back. (see week - shoulder mobility)

    Gluteus medius, but where?    

    These are the buttock muscles at the sides. Dig your thumbs into your hips you will feel them.

3.     Pushing our heals out the back when we walk.                                                                         This is the start of the correct action of walking. It is propulsion, rather than falling forward. So pushing the heals then pushing off the toes not only starts to recruit the gluteal muscles, it sets up good alignment,  

The problem is our modern gluteus fails to switch on, probably because of all our modern sitting in chairs.  The average adult is sedentary for 64% of the time – the desk job, the car, the couch.  This even has a name Gluteal Amnesia. 

So let's get to know our glutes.  Let's use them to propel ourselves forward by driving off with our heels as we walk.