Walking is Falling
One of the ways that I feel most like myself is by being a student. So this weekend I dove into a new course with the Postural Restoration Institute called Forward Locomotor Movement. This is a gait analysis course, but it uses a full system approach to study walking, starting with neurological considerations then expanding to include components like visual-spatial awareness, chest compression and decompression, upper limb movement, and lower limb movement.
Here are some of my favorite takeaways from the course.
Rarely do humans think about walking. It has become pedestrian. But walking is very psychological. Humans greatest fear is falling, and we have to fall, from one side to the other, in order to move forward. So walking involves both an acknowledgement of our fear but also the conquering of that fear with every step. Our limbs are what offset this fear of falling; they reposition us to help us know how to fall safely and keep moving forward.
Walking is rotation. Our arms and legs do not swing in a single plane; they rotate as they swing, as on a pendulum. The body as a whole also does not move in a single plane while walking; it moves a few centimeters up and down with every step and as well as left to right. Even walking in a straight line, we walk in sinusoidal curves. Imagine paddling a canoe on your own. As you dip your paddle into the water on one side of the canoe, the bow turns slightly to one side as the boat moves forward through the water. As you dip your paddle into the other side, the bow turns the opposite direction. Ultimately, the canoe continues to move forward through these gentle arcs to the left and right of midline. The same goes for how we walk.
Finally, walking is a continuum. It is an alternation between loss of balance and recovery of balance, falling down and being lifted, compression and decompression, stance and swing. Our forward movement is the strongest body language we possess.
I offer you a little self check-in the next time you go for a neighborhood walk:
The brain’s visual sense of motion is called optic flow. Momentum should be propelled by peripheral optic flow as the body moves forward and peripheral objects appear to move back. Are you able to notice what is flowing by you as you walk? Is it easier on the left side or right side?
How are you breathing as you walk? Is your mouth open or closed? Can you exhale fully and completely?
Most of us would consider walking to be a leg-driven activity, but arms are an even more significant part of the gait cycle, in that they have a major role in driving lung ventilation and drawing your attention to your peripheral vision. Do your arms swing while you walk? Do they swing differently right and left? Do you notice better airflow when you focus on swinging your arms? Are you more attuned to what is flowing by you as you walk?
The faster you walk, the less you feel the ground underneath you. What do you feel if you reduce your walking speed? What do you sense if you reduce your stride length?
There is no right or wrong to any of these questions. But they might reveal underlying patterns in your vision, breathing, and limb movements, not just while walking but in your posture in general. Walking is meant to reduce stress in the human body; becoming more aware of some of these sensations and patterns may make this essential human movement more relaxing and feel more natural overall. If you give this a try, let me know what you’re noticing.