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What is gait?
Gait is your manner of walking.
What is important about gait?
Your gait has a significant effect upon your health and
wellbeing. A healthy, comfortable natural way of
walking allows the joints of the body to move
freely and easily. This reflects balance and
poise.
By contrast, poor gait reflects notable mobility problems and
tension throughout the body.
Culture
Culture influences gait. Consider how people walk now and how they used
to walk. Watch movies, television and old news footage. Look at different
cultures.
There is no fixed standard for how to walk. However, when you factor in fashion,
footwear, values, expectations - it is clear that there are many external
influences that mould how people walk.
Emulation
If you read some anthropology books you will discover that your gait is often
influenced by 'emulation'... From an early age you copy the gait of
parents/guardians, peer group and pop culture influences.
For example, cowboy films affected how people walked in the 20th Century. Look
at archive footage of gait in the early part of the 20th Century... Men looked
stiff and upright.
This changed when movies became popular.
We walk, and our religion is shown (even to the dullest and most insensitive person) in how we walk. Or to put it more accurately, living in this world means choosing, choosing to walk, and the way we choose to walk is infallibly and perfectly expressed in the walk itself. Nothing can disguise it. The walk of an ordinary man and of an enlightened man are as different as that of a snake and a giraffe.
(R.H. Blyth)
How should we walk?
Although everyone's skeletal structure is subtly
different, we all operate within a limited range of functional variables. In
other words, barring illness or a physical impediment, we should all walk
well.
The skeleton works best when upright, with balanced, toned muscles, relaxed,
mobile joints and good balance.
How do people walk?
Nowadays? Badly. The main
culprits behind bad gait are:
Obesity
Sitting too much
Lack of mindfulness
Not walking enough
Striding
Rushing/hurrying
Poor physical awareness
Postural tension
Poor choice of footwear
Mobile phones
Weak, under-developed leg muscles
Locked knees
If you want a showcase of modern gait, go to the
supermarket. It is like a zombie holocaust. Try to find anyone
who walks well. Good poise? Grace?
Natural, easy
gait? You'll struggle to find anyone.
90 minutes a day
Dr Michael Greger (author of How Not To Die)
recommends 90 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every day.
The three doctors who wrote The Okinawa Program maintain that
tai chi - with its ancient origins and incredible health benefits - is the
ideal form of exercise for modern people.
If this sounds like a lot of exercise, why not chop it up into smaller
increments spaced throughout the day?
Buy a ped counter
Walk as often you can. Buy a pedometer and do 10,000 steps a day. Don't get
caught up on the significance of 10,000 steps. It is just a number. Rather
than procrastinate, walk. Your body will thank you.
Fat or obese?
The problem with body fat is that it prevents the joints from working
properly. Plus, the fatter you are, the worse the problem will be.
You can see many examples of people with extremely fat legs where the legs
cannot physically move in a natural manner. The individual has 'peg legs' -
lurching with each step.
Quite often, modern people have skinny legs, no
buttock muscles to speak of and huge, hulking upper bodies. They are top
heavy. It is easy to see how this will affect gait.
Cultivate awareness
Tai chi teaches people to become conscious of how they use their body. The
mind must be brought back to the here and now. To the
immediate. Students learn to feel what is
happening as it is happening.
This is not a monumental task to accomplish. It simply requires patience,
persistence and a commitment to improve.
Quality of life
Discovering how to walk skilfully is transformative. It will quite literally
affect all facets of your life. Each day. All day long. You will use less
effort, feel less tired, be balanced and nimble.
You will also be less prone to experience mobility, coordination and medical
problems caused by a poor walking technique.
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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