Good Walking Techniques...

...are the difference between good and poor results. Good walking techniques will keep you coming back because you feel great with your head up, arms swinging and feet striding confidently.

Look over this section at least once. Come back from time to time and just make sure you are still 'doing it right'.

Here are the four parts of good walking technique.

1. Proper Posture

How you hold your body directly affects how comfortably and easily you walk. Good posture lets you breathe easier and helps you avoid back pain.

• Stand up straight.
• Think and be tall and straight. Do not arch your back.
• Don't lean forward or back. Leaning puts extra strain on your back muscles.
• Keep your eyes forward. Look straight ahead about 20 feet or more
• Keep you chin up (parallel to the ground). This reduces strain on your neck and back.
• Shrug once and let your shoulders fall and relax your shoulders slightly back.
• Suck in your stomach. More!
• Tuck in your behind - rotate your hips forward slightly. This keeps you from arching your back.

You feel more alive already!

2. Arm Motion

...lends power to your walking, helps balance your leg motion and results in 5-10% more calories burned while you are walking.

• Bend your elbow 90 degrees.
• Your hands should be loose and fingers naturally curled, not clenched. Clenching your fists can raise your blood pressure. Avoid it.
• Swing your arms fairly straight forward and back as you walk, not diagonally. Don't let your hands cross the center point of your body
• Keep your elbows close to your body - don't go 'chicken wing'.
• Keep your forward hand lower than your breastbone. You see many poor examples of arm motions with walkers pumping their arms up high in the air. This doesn't help propel you.
• If you find adding arm motion tiring in the beginning try to do it for 5-10 minutes at a time, then let your arms rest. Go slow. Your goal is to swing your arms during your whole walk when your body is ready.

There's a little more to this good walking techniques stuff than you thought!

3. Taking A Step

We know you know how to take a step but just to be sure...

• Strike the ground first with your heel.
• Roll through the step from heel to toe.
• Push off with your toes.
• Bring back foot forward, strike ground with heel and repeat.

Shoes with flexible soles are important to walking comfortably. If your feet are slapping down rather than rolling through the step, your shoes are too stiff and need to be replaced. See Choosing The Best Walking Shoes For You for some help.

4. Walking Stride

• Don't take longer strides to increase speed (over-striding). This is inefficient and potentially harmful.
• Take more frequent, smaller steps. Your stride should be longer behind rather than out in front of your body.
• Your back leg is what drives your forward. You get that power from your back leg as you push off the toe. This is the key to powerful and efficient walking. Your forward leg has no pushing power.
• Fast walkers train themselves to increase the number of steps per second they take and make full use of the back part of the stride.

Phew! That takes a lot longer to read than do, doesn't it. There's more to good walking techniques than 'just walking'. Once you've 'got it' you won't need to look at it again. Of course, you are most welcome to come back and review it any time.

You might want to check out the Walking Tips section as well for more info and help.

On to the good stuff! Time to go back to your Fitness Walking Program

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