The Art of Walking
There are millions of different ways to walk. Did it happen to you that you haven’t seen someone for a while and you recognise them from a crowd by the way they walk? Our walking is in some way our signature: because there are several muscles involved in the process, each plays a part, and these parts are slightly different from one person to another so each individual’s walking symphony gets quite personal.
While walking is what most people do alright, we can be often just good enough at it. Imagine yourself being a toddler who figured out how to move through space independently while staying vertical – as soon as you can take yourself fast enough to spaces you want to explore, there is no real need to refine your walking so you accept what you learned as a good way and that’s how you will know walking. Of course, you will continue learning and adjusting to some extent, but sooner or later you will reach your “good enough”.
I can think of two occasions when people would be interested in refining their walking or exploring new walking options (post-injury rehab or marathon walking scenario aside):
Acting and needing to embody various personalities. For example, Remi Malek played Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. What we often don’t think about is that actors like this have movement coaches who work on every gesture and move. Polly Bennett, the movie Movement Director, said: “Everyone moves differently because of what they’ve experienced, what they’ve seen, who their family is, what space they’ve grown up. This is what I’ve called a ‘movement heritage.”
Dancing, and particularly dancing the Argentinean tango. Best teachers start by teaching people to walk, and it’s not an easy job. Not too many people realise that it’s in the quality of tango walk, or caminada, where you see a good dancer, not necessarily in complicated choreography. To dance the tango well, one has to learn to walk better in general. Very often, beginners will “run” or “fall” and it can take years to create a simple elegance like this:
However, making your walking easier and better, and creating options, is crucial for your efficient movement and general wellbeing. It’s about:
learning to move from your centre,
your pelvic mobility,
efficient movement of your spine,
great use of your feet,
coordination of your hips and shoulders …
Just imagine that with every step you make you could support your hip joint health, your spine mobility, using more of your feet and therefore support yourself better all the way up your neck and head!
What are the ways to refine your walking?
Come to my online class: Walking is what we explore this term in Lengthening Without Stretching, but any class can be helpful - check the Events page
Explore your habits in a series of individual lessons - go to Booking page
Learn some functional anatomy and be curious about observing yourself and other people walking - it’s all about adding more options to your walking repertoire!