Walking Fitness: Your Form

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

04 Mar 2007 03:11 PM

Earlier, we talked about lifestyle walking and that of the different forms of walking it's the easiest to perform for beginners and advanced enthusiasts alike. However, it's important to recognize that just because walking is easy and that a casual stroll is simple enough to do - that form is still an important component of your workout.

Your Form

Your form is important because it not only helps you to achieve your fitness goals, but it also helps to minimize your risk of injury. Now before you wonder what kinds of injuries you can sustain while walking, I'd check out some previous blogs I wrote on walking injuries because there is more than a handful and it might surprise you to know this.

In the meanwhile, there's also another problem that incorrect form in walking can create - back pain. I'm very familiar with back pain these days. The surgery I recently underwent included some laparoscopic incisions in my abdomen and so I'm more than a little tender and sore there - since I am resisting using my core, I'm creating a lot of tension and stress in my back and that translates to back pain.

Correct Posture

Correct posture is one of our greatest tools when it comes to good form and reaping the benefits of a walking program whether you are an active walker or a lifestyle walker or even a marathon walker. A few years ago, a personal trainer I worked with gave me a checklist for maintaining correct form while walking. She recommended that I review this checklist mentally two or three times during the course of a walk. That means if you go for a 30-minute walk, review it about every ten minutes and for a sixty-minute walk, you should review it every 15 to 20 minutes.

The Checklist

The checklist is pretty basic and straightforward. Don't be intimidated by it, because while it may seem like a lot, it can take about a minute or so to run down the list mentally. One way I remember the following list is to say:

Heather should check all happy and hip things on her feet while taking a deep breath and listening to her heart. You may want your own mnemonics, but this one works for me. It stands for a checklist that has me running down the following list:

• Head - my head should be up and my eyes focused ahead, this means my neck is relaxed and my chin is up
• Shoulders - my shoulders should also be relaxed, they should be back and down and not rounded and forward under my ears
• Chest - my chest, like my head should be aimed forward and lifted - think like you have a string attached to your sternum and it lifts your chest some as you walk
• Arms - my arms should be loose and slightly bent, they can swing lightly with each step
• Hands - my hands should be cupped, like you are trying to carry a butterfly in your palms as you walk
• Abdominal - I shouldn't quite suck in my tummy, but if your chest is lifted, your abdomen will naturally tuck your belly button towards your spine and this allows you to engage your core as you are walking and keep your spine erect
• Hips - my hips should move forward and back and not side to side - in other words, you don't want that rolling sway to your walk - it's not about shaking your booty but about walking smooth
• Feet- my feet should lead every part of the walk with the heel hitting the ground first and a gentle rolling motion bringing the rest of my foot into the action and springing off the toes as I take the next step
• Heart & Breathing - finally, my breathing should be deep and regular, I shouldn't be panting and my heart shouldn't be racing, this is about steady wins the race rather than running at high speed

If you run through these particular steps in your head as you walk, you will be using your whole body in the walk and not providing a ton of stress to your back, your buttocks or your hips. Instead, you will be balancing out the stress across the board and getting the most bangs for your buck as it were.

Do you practice good form when you are walking?

Related Articles:

The Four Kinds of Walking

My Little Inspiration: Our Local 1-Mile Walk

Planning Ahead - Want to Walk a Mile?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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