WALKING PATTERNS
Purpose: To re-educate a normal walking pattern.
1. In standing, feet parallel, find pelvic neutral by tilting your pelvis back and forth and half way between. Find thoracic neutral by relaxing your shoulders and widening at the collar bones. Find neck neutral by thinking of holding a ripe peach under your chin. Relax your tummy muscles and engage pelvic floor and deep transverse abdominals. Engage shoulder blade muscles. Breast bone in line with tummy button.
2. Put one foot forwards as if you are about to take a step. Feel with your hands what your bottom muscles and hamstrings are doing. Are they clenching or tight? Find hip neutral and engage your gluteus medius and maximus by turning out slightly at both hips (think of turning out at the headlights). This should have the effect of stopping the clenching in your bottom and hamstrings.
3. Activate your VMO by straightening your knee on the behind leg. Sway your weight forwards using your bottom muscles on your behind leg to propel you forwards. Ensure that you extend your hip fully and lengthen in your calf by keeping your heel down and not pushing through your calf.
4. Focus on the forward leg to make sure this is not fixing anywhere. Your knee on this leg should be straight and your gluteus medius/maximus and VMO activated.
5. Keeping the length in your calf on the behind leg, bend at the knee (making sure knee is over second toe and you are turning out at the hip to keep hip neutral and gluteus medius and maximus activated- think of keeping your headlights turned out. Make sure it is NOT your calf and foot doing the work). You should feel your bottom muscles on the bending leg working to lengthen to control the movement as you take a step through. At this point your gluteus medius and maximus on the straight leg should be working to support you.
6. As you swing your leg through, your supporting leg should now be working particularly in gluteus medius/maximus and VMO. Now your forward leg will heel strike and your foot will flatten from heel to toe on the floor.
7. Your behind leg propels you forwards using gluteus medius/maximus and VMO and the process starts again.
8. Compare what happens in one side then the other. Both sides may well function very differently.
9. Try and use this pattern while walking throughout the day. You may want to start just in your bedroom particularly if you are feeling your bottom! But as time goes on it is possible to make this a learned pattern.
