Common mistakes many people make when walking

When you hear the phrase “everyone walks wrong,” it can be a surprise to many people. They’ve been walking that way all along, regularly hitting 10,000 steps a day. But sports scientist and WalkActive founder Joanna Hall says we should focus on how we walk.

According toTechradarIn fact, most of us think that walking is simple and doesn’t require any skills or techniques. According to Hall, there are four common walking mistakes that most people make. To overcome them, try practicing the following helpful tips the next time you go out for a walk.

Focus on using your glutes and hamstrings instead of your hip flexors.

Hall wants to improve your walking from the ground up, starting with your feet.

She says that when walking, people over-rely on their hip flexors without properly engaging their glutes and hamstrings. The hip flexors are part of the core, a group of muscles that run from the spine down to the thigh bone, allowing you to lift your knees and bend at the waist.

"If we rely too much on our hip flexors, it prevents us from using our glutes properly," explains Hall. "Combine that with our lifestyle and how much time we spend sitting, and the hip flexors become tight and shortened."

According to this expert, after finishing a walk, many people often feel discomfort in the lower back or may have problems with knee flexion. That is because they are walking forward and unintentionally not using the posterior chain (the muscles that run along the back of the body, including the glutes and hamstrings).

Instead, she recommends trying this move. Imagine there are sticky notes with messages written on them stuck to the soles of your shoes. As you walk, try to step forward out of the space you’re occupying, leaving your back foot slightly behind so that the person behind you can quickly read the notes.

"That means you start using your glutes and hamstrings and not your hip flexors, which will protect your back and improve your posture," Hall explains.

Focus on your feet to stabilize your hips.

The next point to note is the hips and it also stems from how you use your legs.

"People tend to walk with flat feet, meaning the foot drops down into one block, but the foot has 26 bones in it. And that place is actually a joint and we're supposed to move in there," Hall says.

As a result, walking with flat feet can put more pressure on your knees, which can have an adverse effect on how your knees move over your toes. Luckily, there is a fix you can try. Imagine you have Velcro on the bottom of your feet and the path you are walking on.

As you pass the note to the person behind you, imagine you are peeling your back foot off the ground little by little and that will stimulate movement through the joints of your entire foot. That is great for your posture.

Head and shoulder position

Do you lean forward when you walk? Maybe you’re engrossed in your phone or you’re just hunching forward out of habit. Either way, stop.

“Walking with your head tilted forward puts a lot of pressure on your back and makes it very stiff,” she says. “The back should be able to do four movements: flexion, extension, rotation in the thoracic (mid) spine, and also lateral movement. But when we have stiff shoulders due to the head tilted forward, the back loses rotational movement.”

Hall says this affects your posture as well as your breathing by restricting the movement of your diaphragm.

To fix this, imagine a straight line between your shoulders and your earlobes. Then, as you walk, keep your shoulders back and your head up to create as much distance between your head and shoulders as possible, without hunching over.

Arm

Finally, the arms. You don't need to swing your arms mechanically, but let them move naturally and smoothly.

According to Hall, being able to take 10,000 steps a day is great. But why not make a few small changes to get even more benefit out of each step?

“No matter who you are, how old you are or what your body type is, everyone can learn to walk better,” she says. “You’ll look better, you’ll definitely feel better, and you’ll be investing in a better body in the long run because you’re protecting it by building strength and fitness.

Walking is something you do on a regular basis, so why wouldn't you want to do it to the best of your ability?".

In 2013, Hall's research with the Center for Exercise and Sports Science found that people who followed the plan for 28 days increased their walking speed by 23%. They also lost 2% of their weight, an estimated 3% less body fat, and their waist skinfold measurement dropped by 15%.

The study also showed improved posture and bone alignment, leading to significantly reduced impact forces on the knee and ankle joints./.