Walking For Physical Fitness

Walking is simple. In everyday life, we are always walking. We walk around the room, up the stairs and outdoors. The human body is designed to walk efficiently and easily.

WALKING needs no lessons, except maybe for babies. Though all of us walk every day, very few of us realize that walking is an exercise that maintains physical fitness.

In normal walking the heel strikes the floor. Then the foot rolls inward and pushess off with the big toe. Most people land the foot on the outer side of the heel.

If a person lands on the innerside of the heel, his foot is abnormal because it rolls inward. Usually this kind of abnormality is treated by padding the innerside of footwear.

In normal walking the force on the heel is transmitted to the whole area of the foot, to the ankle, to the knee, to the skin and to the lower back area. The structure and position of the skeleton is designed specifically so that it can absorb all the force and cause no harm to  the body. The muscles of the feet and legs absorbs the force and blows resulting from jarring and jolting during walking.

Many people think they can walk for leisure without paying attention to their posture and body alignment. This is definitely wrong.

By walking carelessly we will put strain on the joints, muscles and ligaments. We will experience sore muscle or sore joints and perhaps also the abnormality of some bones, like the backbone.

If you walk with the chest tucked inside and the back arched of humped, you will have breathing problems. Why ? Because the lungs are compressed and you cannot breath normally.

In the long run, you will likely have an arched back and back complaints. This happens very often with lower back problems. Because of bad spine alignment, lower back pain will occur.

All these complaints and abnormalities can be corrected by walking normally and in a well aligned manner, that is: The chest is pulled up, the shoulders are pushed back, and the head is lifted straight, the eyes look level in front, not down at the floor.

Prof. John Bloomfield, a famous biomechanic specialist from the University of Western Australia said, "One of the best postures is that of Balinese women that carry burdens on their heads.

The kind of walking is physiological and the body alignment is correct. If you pull a line from the center of the shoulder, the hip, the knee and the ankle of the foot."

Proper posture maximizes the natural spinal curves, allows the weight of the body to balance properly and avoids overworking the back muscles. However, poor walking posture allows the entire body to slant forward, and this position makes the back muscles strain to keep the individual from failing over.


The following are a few tips on walking correctly:


1. When walking, relax your face muscles, unclench your jaws.


2. Relax your shoulders and back muscles without letting your shoulders slump forward.


3. Let your arms swing naturally at your sides. Do not swing the arms across the midline, because this can cause an excessive twisting force on the lumbar spine and pelvis.


4. Relax the hands and do not hold any objects such as keys, radios or sticks etc.


5. Stride easily and naturally. Do not try to lengthen the stride because this will put more strain on the back.


6. Breathing should be gentle, even and unforced. If you can't carry on a conversation while walking, then your walking speed is too fast; slow down or walk on level terrain.

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