Right Technique for Walking

‘Motion is the Solution’. Walking is a sociable and environmentally sound activity.  Exercise is essential for all of us. Exercise keeps us healthy, helps us lose weight, it can even help us live longer. Of all the forms of exercise, walking is most popular. Walking is the easiest skill we develop but what we need is to do it properly.

If we walk properly  we can eventually walk for long periods, which is even better for our metabolism and our cardiovascular system.  So proper walking technique is essential. Walking can be done anywhere, even indoors. We dont necessarily have to be in a Gym always to get ourselves fit. We just need a proper walking technique. It is with good reason that nearly 80 million Americans consider themselves walkers, and this number is growing each year. There is very little instruction available on how to walk properly.

Proper walking Technique includes:

• Keeping your head high
• Looking forward not towards the ground and keeping your chin parallel to the ground
• Move your shoulders naturally
• Keep your back straight and not arched
• Swing your arms naturally
• Tighten your stomach muscles while walking
• Walking smoothly by your rolling feet

The efficiency of our walking is directly proportional to the quality of our posture. It’s  essential to keep our body weight  supported by our bones, ligaments and tendons and the Plum Line  at our ankle, hip and shoulder are all connected in a straight line. When this plum line is  out of alignment even slightly, our muscles need to do the work of holding us upright.

Proper walking technique involves a technique  to hit the ground with the pad of our heel, roll through the foot and then push off with our toes. Always keep your pelvis in neutral position while walking to avoid hip and spine pain.

Arm acts as an accelerator during walking and good arm motion during walking  ensures mobility of spine .Bend your elbows to about 90 degrees and focus on making a long backward swing and a short forward swing of elbow during walking.

Mistakes that should be avoided:

A common mistake  we make while  walking at speed is to allow our shoulders to creep up towards our ears, creating tension in our neck, shoulders and back. We can combat this by looking up and forward and focusing on relaxing our shoulders by increasing the space between our shoulders and ears.

So, Walking is definitely the easiest and most inexpensive way to remain healthy and burn off extra calories.

#WorldHealthDay #Walk4Health