How to improve your stride
With gyms closed and few outlets for social interaction, many people are taking to long walks in nature as a way to exercise and socialize. Indeed, walking is very beneficial to our health. It can boost our mood, assist in weight loss, and give us a safe outlet during a pandemic.
If you’re using walking as your primary method of exercise, you may not be doing it right. How you walk is just as important as getting out there. It’s not just speed either. How you walk can effect your posture, joints, and may make you feel stiff.
Why we walk improperly
Before looking at how to change our stride, it’s important to understand how you probably got there. Walking is something we have done almost our whole lives, and something humans have done for thousands of years. How have things changed to make things go so wrong?
The answer is actually in how much we are sitting. Long hours in an office chair have made our hip flexors short and tight, which can lead to changes in our stride that effect the whole body. If you spend a significant amount of time sitting down, chances are your hip flexors aren’t what they could be.
How to improve your stride
When going for a walk, pay attention to yourself. Are you pushing off from where you were, or reaching out and stepping into a space? It’s better to do the former than the latter. Use your feet to cushion your joints as you go, rather than simply walking flat footed.
Finally, pay attention to your head. If you allow your head to hang forward even a tiny bit, the weight of your head forces your neck and the rest of your body to work to keep it that way. The head is a fairly heavy part of the body, which is what can cause stiffness in your neck and shoulders.
Good posture and an open stride can really make a difference in how you feel after a walk, so it’s worth giving it a try.