Learn the Secret to Pain-Free Movement

Welcome to The Walking Code, a course that teaches you how to keep your body aligned, move with fluidity, and reduce pain by learning how to function the way your body was designed to function, from your core.

Pain is often the first warning sign of damage occurring in the body. Sudden pain can come from an injury, and in those cases the cause is usually easy to figure out. On the other hand, many people suffer from pain where the source is not that obvious. It comes without an injury, and during activities which would not normally cause pain. If you suffer from pain anywhere in the lower body that was not caused by a specific injury, it may be a sign that you are not moving your body correctly. Fortunately, the problem can be fixed.

The Walking Code is a course designed to help you learn how to keep your body properly aligned and reduce the heavy impact on the joints that is caused by improper walking technique. When you improve the way you walk, you can overcome many common conditions, such as lower back pain, sciatica, hip and knee arthritis, ankle pain, heel pain, plantar fasciitis, bunions, and hammertoes. Begin your journey to pain-free movement now by signing up for The Walking Code.

Why Do You Need to Rethink Your Walking Technique?

Most people take their ability to walk for granted. It is presumed to be natural and easy, with no thought or instruction required. This couldn't be further from the truth. It may be true that getting from one place to another on two feet is not that difficult, but doing it effectively is not as simple.

What is effective walking?

Effective walking must accomplish more than just moving from one place to another. Effective walking must allow us to do all of the following:

1. Travel at a varying speeds and in any direction required.

2. Navigate different terrains, including uneven ground, uphill and downhill slopes, stairs, ledges, and other obstacles.

3. Control the transfer of weight in order to avoid injury that could be caused by stepping on a hard or sharp object.

4. Maintain constant balance to avoid falls, especially down stairs.

5. Do all of the above without causing premature wear and tear on the joints and connective tissues that can result from misalignment of the spine and other joints.

If those are the criteria for effective walking, then there is a significant portion of our society that does not walk effectively. If we get our recommended 10 thousand steps a day, that would add up to 3.65 million steps a year. Each of these steps creates a physical impact on the joints in the spine and lower body. When the joints are not properly aligned, the impact of each of these steps creates stress that can slowly erode the joints and connective tissues. Imagine the effect on your car tires of just a minor misalignment of the wheels. In no time at all, the edges of the affected tires begin to wear down, eventually requiring replacement. Our bodies are no different, except that replacing worn body parts is not nearly as easy as getting new tires.

When our joints are subjected to abnormal forces for long periods of time, just like the car tire, they wear out. This manifests itself as conditions such as bunions and hammertoes, falling arches, plantar fasciitis, knee arthritis, hip arthritis, and low back pain. In most cases, the blame is placed on the wrong culprit, like being overweight, having flat feet, poor genetics, or previous injuries. The fact is, most people develop these conditions in the absence of any of these suspected causes. Why is this? I believe the abnormal forces that damage our joints prematurely are the result of failing to operate the body as it was designed to operate, and the one activity that we do incorrectly more than any other, leading to the most damage, is walking.

Just go to the nearest mall and sit for a while and watch people walk. In no time you will see a wide variety of walking styles. Some people, often in flip flops, will be walking with their feet turned out at an angle. This can be referred to as the duck walk. Other people will be lunging forward with each step, smacking their heels against the ground as they go. Still others will wobble side to side, pushing their weight from one leg to the other like a penguin. Some people will be leaning forward, some leaning back, and some bouncing up and down. Some women will be walking in platform shoes or high heels and appear as though they are undertaking their first attempt to walk on stilts. There are so many ways of walking incorrectly, and unfortunately our society as a whole has failed to recognize what a significant health hazard this is. We have failed to realize that walking is a serious problem.

If you watch animals walk, you will not see the wide variations in gait that are so prevalent in humans, Animals seem to have a remarkable consistency in their walking patterns. Animals are born programmed to walk in a certain way, and so they do. Humans are also born to walk a certain way, and we do, at least initially. Children around the globe, regardless of culture and nationality, go through a very consistent process of learning to crawl, sit, then stand, and then walk. If you take your toddler to the pediatrician, the doctor has a list of expected developmental goals which should be reached by a certain age. Walking is one of those expected developmental goals, and is predictably developed between 9 and 15 months of age. It does not require any instruction. Just like it is with animals, it is a preprogrammed learning process.

Regrettably, somewhere along the way, many people stray off the path of normal, effective walking technique. The vast majority of these people who are causing damage to their bodies by walking incorrectly are completely unaware there is a problem. The damage occurs too slowly to make a connection between the pain and the poor technique. When people go to the doctor complaining of the pain, the doctor usually examines the painful area and asks if there was any unusual injury that might be the trigger. Since the patient is unaware, and the doctor doesn't do any functional evaluation, a connection is never made.

We long ago recognized the slowly erosive effects that both high blood pressure and high blood sugar have on the body. Decades after they develop, they lead to strokes, heart attacks, and many other debilitating medical complications. High blood pressure is called the silent killer because it doesn't cause any symptoms until the damage is already done, a devastating stroke possibly being the first symptom. Poor walking technique may have a similar erosive effect on the body, the difference being that the effect is on the joints and connective tissues, not the blood vessels and heart. The first symptoms may not show up until there is already significant wearing out of the joints, and then it may be too late. Episodic pain in the joints and feet that are often passed off as being caused by temporary "overuse" may really be warning signs of repetitive injury caused by poor body mechanics. If ignored, the problems can often become permanent as joints and connective tissue become irreparably damaged.

The Walking Code is a unique analysis of body mechanics focused on how to use the core precisely to allow the body to function the way it was designed to function. By using the core correctly, you can ensure proper alignment of your spine and other joints, reduce or prevent pain and injury, and improve performance in almost any activity. The Walking Code is one branch of the Quantum Movement System, a core movement system which can be applied to almost any activity. Learning how to move from your core will allow you to move more consciously, move more fluidly, and most importantly, move without pain.

Here are some quick tips you an use to decide if your waking technique needs improvement.

1. Pain: If you are prone to episodic or chronic pain in the lower body that was not the result of an injury, there is a good chance you have a functional problem with the way you move that is causing injury. So if you have this type of pain, and you or your doctor haven't figured out why, you need to consider that your walking technique may be the source of the problem. 

2. Looking at the Ground: If your gaze tends to be directed toward the ground in front of you when you walk, you are not walking with good technique. Looking down is a sign that you are pitching forward. This causes poor alignment in your neck, back, and pelvis and can lead to a variety of painful conditions.

3. Abnormal Arm Swing: The arms should swing in a relaxed, rhythmic fashion when you walk. If you are not conscious of how your arms are swinging, it means you aren't conscious of how you are moving, and that could be a problem. If your arms do not swing correctly, you probably have a problem with the way you are walking. The following types of arm swing may indicate a problem with your walking technique: If your arms swing farther in back of your body than in the front. If your arms swing across your body instead of straight forward. If your forward arm swing does not begin until after your whole foot has landed (it should begin when the heel places, before the forefoot is lowered). If your left arm doesn't move forward with right leg and your right arm with your left leg.

Here are 10 quick tips on how you can begin improving your walking technique today. Then register for the entire Walking Code course and bring your movement to a whole new level. All you need to register is an e-mail and create a password. 

1: Elevate the Head

Proper walking technique requires proper posture. Begin by elongating the neck and floating the head upward. The eyes should be directed forward, not down at the ground. If you find yourself walking around like you are looking for loose change, shift your focus to the horizon. Imagine a balloon connected by a string to the crown of your head. Imagine the balloon floating upward, elongating your neck. Think up, not back. The eyes should be forward and the chin level with the ground. Always keep the muscles relaxed. While your head is floating, let the shoulders sink as if they are moving toward the ground as the head moves toward the sky.

2: Don't Lean

 
The spine must remain vertical, from the neck to the pelvis, at all times. Don't lean forward, and don't lean back. Feel like you are floating forward, not falling forward. One of the most common causes of leaning forward is initiating the step too late, after the forefoot has already come to the ground. at the wrong time. Every step should begin immediately after the placement of the heel. This is when the pelvis should tuck under

3: Move from the Core

 It is a good question to ask yourself, how do you begin to take a step. Intention is everything. Intention is how our mind tells our body to move. We begin by intending to walk, and our mind must signal this intention to the body to initiate movement. When we move effectively, this intention must go directly to the core. This is where all functional movement begins.

The movement begins in the core. The actions of the legs and the arms are reflections of actions of the core. Keep the core relaxed and move from your center, gliding forward with each step. If you feel like you are falling and landing rather that floating and gliding, you aren't using your core correctly.

 
4: Be Conscious of Your Arm Swing

 
The relaxed swing of the arms is a reflection of the rotation of the core when we walk. The arms should swing in opposition to the legs. When the left leg goes forward, the right arm should go forward. When the right leg goes forward, the left arm should go forward. This movement should come from the core, not from the arms. You should be able to keep your arms perfectly loose and relaxed. They should swing with no active effort to make them swing. It is a sign of poor core function if your arms are not swinging naturally, or if they are swinging across the body rather than forward. It is a really bad sign if your arm swings on the same side as the swinging leg.

Check how conscious your walking is by trying to walk while thinking about the coordination between the arms and legs. Begin by consciously stepping forward with your right leg while letting your left arm swing forward in a relaxed manner. Then consciously and slowly step forward with your left leg and let your right arm swing forward. In my medical practice when I assess a patient walking, I often ask them to focus on their arm swing. In most cases, even in patients who walk with a normal arm swing, thinking about it throws them off completely. This is because most people walk by remote control. They have little awareness of what they are doing to make the movement happen. This is dangerous because without awareness, you can't have refinement. This makes people vulnerable to injury due to inadvertent errors in their walking technique.

If you have difficulty controlling your arm swing, work on it with your conscious mind. The more naturally you control your arm swing, the more it indicates controlled action of your core. When you begin to walk with consciousness, you can begin to refine your walk. You can begin to glide and  not be at the mercy of gravity.

5: Level the Pelvis

 
The alignment of the spine when both standing and walking should extend all the way to the tip of the tailbone. The sacral spine is the portion of the spine at the level of the pelvis. Keeping this properly aligned means keeping the pelvis leveled. If you think of the pelvis as a bowl, keeping it level is like keeping a bowl full of water level. It shouldn't tip forward or back. Keeping the pelvis level is primarily a function of the actions of the lower abdominal muscles. They help both control the forward and back tilt of the pelvis as well as the rotation of the pelvis.

When standing still, we can work on leveling the pelvis by using the lower abdominal muscles in a relaxed way to pull up the pelvis to a level position.  Don't over tuck the tailbone. Remember, the pelvis shouldn't tilt forward or backward.

For many people who stand with incorrect posture long enough, it isn't possible to level the pelvis. The hip flexors have shortened and the lower back muscles have shortened due to incorrect positioning for so long that the incorrect posture becomes fixed. This can be improved with a variety of different stretches designed to help loosen the hip flexors and elongate lower back muscles.

When we walk, the leveling of the pelvis occurs more dynamically. With each step, the lower torso activates on the side of the standing leg and releases on the side of the swing leg. This serves the purpose of both leveling the pelvis on the side of the standing leg while rotating the opposite side of the pelvis, along with the swing leg, forward.

The activation of the muscles in the core that rotate the upper torso turn in the opposite direction of the muscles that turn the lower torso and the pelvis. Since the arms are connected to the upper torso, they swing in opposition to the rotation of the pelvis. The net effect is that the lower abdominal rotation and the upper torso rotation appear visibly to cancel each other out. It makes it appear that the torso is still when we walk, but nothing could be further from the truth.

6: Keep the Hips Relaxed and Avoid Pushing

 
The rotation of the abdominal core muscles form two of the important components of the core that must be coordinated for proper walking technique. The third component of the core is the action of the hip joints.

The hip actions must coordinate properly with the rotation of the core. One of the common errors people make when using the hips is pushing off with the hip from the mid stance position. That is the position when the full weight is balanced over the standing leg. By pushing, I mean extending the hip joint, pushing the knee backward. Pushing results in a lunging action, not a gliding action. This can lead to a variety of different problems, like excessive impact of the swing leg and over-striding.

Pushing off with the hip is a natural mistake if you ignore the necessary contribution of the torso rotation in walking. People think that pushing with the hip is required to make the body move forward. But moving forward or backward has more to do with the rotation of the waist than the action of the hips. I can extend the hip and push myself forward, or I can extend the hip and push myself backward. The hip action is the same in either case. The direction of rotation of the waist is what determines backward and forward.

Walking forward with a normal gait requires flexing the hip, not extending the hip. Instead of pushing the knee backward, the feeling should be one of pulling the knee forward. With the proper waist rotation, this causes the body to float or glide forward, not lunge forward. With a different waist rotation, the same hip flexion can make me float backward instead of forward.

7. Keep the Feet Facing Forward

 
You might think that this one requires no explanation, but unfortunately these days, it does. There is an epidemic of people walking around like ducks, and I personally lay the blame on the recent habit of people walking around in flip flops all day. The knees and the ankles and the feet are designed to travel forward in the direction the body is moving. They are not designed to roll sideways. Walking with the feet turned out is one of the easiest walking errors to observe when watching people walk. This problem is not caused by any physical defect. When I see young patients who come and visit me for pain in the knees or feet, frequently I see them walking with this error. In most cases, when I ask them how much time the spend in flip flops, they say they where flip flops all the time. The foot turn out is a subconscious action designed to keep the flip flops on their feet since there is no back strap. The more time spent in flip flops, the more this becomes the normal way of walking. The problem with unconscious walking is that these people aren't even aware they are doing it. They never give their walking form even a moments consideration. And when they start having pain in the inside of the knees, they don't make a connection because they don't even know they are doing it.

 
8: Avoid Bouncing
 
 
Walking should be smooth and level. There shouldn't be a very noticeable vertical up and down action, or bouncing. The goal in walking is to glide, not bounce. This reduces impact on the heels and stresses on all of the other lower extremity structures. Just like all of the other errors in walking technique, bouncing is a result of incorrect coordination of the core actions during walking.

9: Align the Joints in the Lower Body

 
The integrity and health of the lower extremity joints requires that a they be aligned correctly, just like the spine. Keep the hips aligned over the knees, the knees aligned over the ankles, the ankles aligned over the feet, and the weight evenly distributed over the weighted foot. When the weight is carried over the inside of the hips, the knees, and the feet, the joints and connective tissues that support these structures begin to wear out. This results in debilitating hip arthritis, knee arthritis, ankle pain, and a wide variety of hip disorders. Keeping the joints aligned is a function of the mechanics of the core. Various errors in core movement alter the alignment in the lower extremity joints. Correcting the alignment then requires correcting the core. If you feel you weight over the inside or outside of your feet when you walk or stand, that indicates you have an alignment issue that needs to be corrected. If you have been told you need arch supports, or especially if arch supports really bother you, these are good indications that you are not aligned correctly. This can be corrected with conscious awareness and understanding of your core.

10. Proper Footwear

 
Footwear becomes most important when people don't walk correctly. That is when very supportive shoes and often arch supports are needed to help correct misalignments that are a manifestation of faulty core control. When we function correctly, there is less need for these artificial supports, but many or even most people do benefit from them. In these cases, proper shoes and arch supports can at least partially correct for deficits in walking technique, but to some extent they are masking the problem rather than solving it.

In other circumstances, like the overuse of flip flops that I mentioned earlier,  improper footwear not only fails to correct underlying problems but can also be the cause of them. In the case of flip flops, they alter they way people walk in order to keep them from falling off the backs of the feet. The fact that they lack any support in the arch is only a secondary problem with flip flops.

High heels are another potential problem for those who wear them frequently. In addition to being a doctor, I am also a professional Argentine Tango instructor and performer. My wife and dance partner spends a good deal of time wearing very high heels when performing, but she doesn't spend all day in them outside of her dancing job. She also knows how to correctly distribute her weight over her feet when in heels, and this prevents problems. When people don't know how to walk correctly in heels, or they spend too much time in them, that is when the problems begin. So if you do where heels, limit your time in them, and make sure you are walking correctly. If you have issues with bunions, plantar fasciitis, or other foot or knee issues, I would recommend you scrap the heels entirely. While the heels are not likely the sole cause of your problems, they are only going to make the problems worse.