Mindfulness: Walking awareness

Walking with ease: from hips to spine to arms
Josef DellaGrotte writes:
Walking upright requires an alignment with central gravity that is unique to humans. This connecting link starts from the hips, the strong bony structure and articulations of the pelvis generate three actions which are essential to getting lift and forward power. The hips have to rotate laterally bend and extend and flex. That power is then transmitted to the spine and the ribs, which need to be in the best alignment to transmit the vectors of force. So what if it isn’t in the best alignment? First, Imagine a car trying to up hill in high gear. There is not enough power, the engine over heat and damage soon occurs. It is the same in a human body. If the hips are not generating the “horse power” because of restrictions in action, then you walk harder using the legs. The legs become stressed often manifesting this stress as knee problems. Second, The hips are doing okay but the spine is curved either in a lower back lordosis or mid back kyphosis. Problem: The vector force has to travel through mobile moving joints of the spine. If it can’t the hips work harder carrying the load of the upper body on them. This is not good. Does this sound discouraging? Look at it this way, if you recognize you are working too hard to walk, it is only matter of some learning upgrade to get the system functioning the way it was designed to do.

Try this Exercise
1. Face a door or wall. Place your fingers on it and organize yourself to be standing close and in the vertical plane. Avoid any leaning forward or putting pressure on your fingers.
2. Now stand on one leg. Keep that leg straight and push through that leg as if you were pressing into the ground and generating a ground forces, a spring like action that runs up your spine and gives you the feeling of uplift (getting taller).
3. Think of directing the force through your body and notice how the body starts to turn. While you are doing this your other leg should have no weight on it. It can be touching the ground with the toes with the heel lifted to maintain your balance. Practice this activity on one leg, rest, and then do it with your other leg.

The key to this exercise is trial by experiment in order to sense differences and notice connections. Simply by doing and noticing, you start to activate your innate ability to feel the connection between pushing through a straightened leg and following that force as it travels through your body. It will probably rotate you slightly through the left if you are standing on your right leg or to the right if you are standing on your left leg.

Follow the force of this thrusting until you are clear where the end point is. Simply by doing this exercise you are already developing awareness through movement, (Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais-based principles and process) of sensing limbs, joint actions, resonant motion, lengthening and strengthening in an interconnected way. Once you start to cultivate the sensing of such connections, your walking will improve automatically.

The benefits: Walking provides much needed "resonant movement" through many of the axial joints. It is essential in maintaining spinal flexibility and upright posture. Walking provides needed elongation to the spine, plus strengthening, endurance, relaxation and perhaps most important, confidence building. Walking is the basic foundation of fitness. Walking is known to reduce cardiac problems, stroke, and arthritic conditions with a host of other benefits to the entire body.