Health & Fitness

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Stand up, look at your feet. Where are your toes pointing?

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Yes, those are my feet..

If they're pointing straight, you've somehow been able to keep a neutral ankle in this world where we wear too comfortable shoes and sit too much (more details in my last myTake). If they're pointing out, there's a fault in your system and you're probably walking wrong. Our feet should be straight, they should have a natural arch and your ankles should be neutral.

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Neutral ankle with a natural arch

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Pronated ankle and a collapsed arch

Some of you might be thinking the same thing I used to think when I was younger and hadn't fixed my feet yet, "My feet are just this way" or "I was born like this". You're feet are like that because of a modern lifestyle and you were not born like that.

Let's do a little experiment.

Stand up again, and if you have duck feet (toes pointed outward), point your toes forward. Your knees went inward, right? They might even be touching. You can't possibly stand or walk like this, can you? Now, start twisting your feet outward without them moving like you're trying to split the floor apart and push your knees outward. Something happened.. your feet suddenly have an arch and your ankles are straight. Your knees aren't touching and you're butt for some reason is squeezed.

This is how you should be standing, all the time.

Your glutes (biggest and strongest muscles in your body) should always be a little active. For you they might be a little asleep. Also the supportive muscles in your ankles and feet keeping your arches up, they've also been asleep. But they're there and you need to wake them up. You need to keep reminding yourself and your body how it should stand.

Now that you understand the way your feet should be and how to stand correctly, we should continue to the main topic.

What is walking?

Before I give you the answer, think in your head in one sentence, what is walking?

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Did you think, moving one foot forward after the other? You're only half right and you're thinking from the wrong perspective.

Walking is controlled falling.

You move your feet forward to stop yourself from going nose first in to the dirt. Walking starts from push back, not a move forward. Your glutes should squeeze every time your feet push back and you shouldn't reach too far with your front leg. The front leg mostly just moves with your body.

This is actually how you and every one of us originally learned how to walk as a baby, but somewhere down the line we create faults in our bodies. One of those faults is our hips, which I've explained in my earlier myTake, but in this one I'll explain the other, our shoes.

You're wearing too comfortable shoes

Go look at your shoes. How many of them have ankle support? How many of them have arch support? How many of them have shock absorbing material? How many of them have an elevated heel?

Most of the time your ankle doesn't need support, if you just learn to use the supporting muscles. Most of the time your arches don't need support, if you just learn to use the muscles than keep them up. Your arches are one of your body's natural shock absorbers. Having any elevated heel is unnatural for us humans.

All of these attributes have their use, but not in every day use. No wonder your supporting muscles are asleep, if they never get used. The shoes I wear most of the time are flat, light and have no ankle or arch support, kind of like these.

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Now, you shouldn't go straight to these kind of shoes, if you have collapsed ankles. You might want to work on waking up those supporting muscles and then start to change shoes.

Fixing something like this takes time

It takes patience. It took me months to relearn how to walk and to keep my feet straight and I had to constantly remind myself. However, the end result is great. My hip, knees and ankles have never been this healthy.

It's always good to go back to the experiment we did earlier. That's the reminder of what you should be striving for and what it should feel like.

Hopefully this inspires even one of you to make changes and become healthier.

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.

Have a good day!

You might be walking wrong and this is how to fix it.
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