#walking posture

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How To Fully Engage Your Psoas When Walking

Psoas anyone?

Here’s an article about how the psoas are used in walking and how breathing is so important.

By simply paying attention to how you walk, engaging the legs fully, and breathing with your diaphragm you can significantly improve your posture. Additionally you’ll be able to walk much farther without tiring.

Psoas Power

The Psoas Muscle in Walking Biomechanical and Fascial Considerations

In my DVD, I speak several times about the importance of propelling the body forward with the back leg and foot, allowing toe-off to be complete. It’s common, in places where space is at a premium (e.g. crowded sidewalks, corridors between work cubicles, small kitchens) for us to pull ourselves forward with the leg that swings forward, rather than propelling our bodies forward from the back leg. When the body is drawn forward from the forward heel, the hamstring muscles don’t complete their potential for movement which is to extend the hip enough to take the leg behind the body. When the hip doesn’t fully extend, the hamstrings are robbed of the opportunity to let go during the swing phase of the walk. This is the scenario of perpetually tight hamstrings.

  Watch examples in the last moments of this video post from last year:

In the above described gait pattern, the distal attachment of the psoas at the groin becomes a fixed point. With every step the psoas stabilizes the trunk: the thigh pulls the trunk forward but because of the truncated push-off, the psoas remains short and tight and doesn’t lengthen to its full extent.

Which walker has the best hip extension and psoas length?

When you push the body forward and really extend the back leg behind, you activate the hamstrings, gluteus maximus and foot plantar flexors. That action elongates the psoas, a natural antagonist to the hamstrings. The psoas fascia is then stretched during push-off, and the energy thus stored rebounds to swing the leg into the next forward step. When the psoas fascia isn’t lengthened during hip extension, its ability to store and rebound energy is wasted.

None of this works unless ease in the ribcage allows respiration to lengthen the spine and free the ribcage from the pelvis. Elevation of the ribcage raises the proximal attachment of the psoas, lengthening it. Normal contralateral rotation of the spine during walking takes place just above the place where the psoas and diaphragm fascias interweave along the front of the spine. Thus breathing well and walking well are inextricable.

SOURCE: Mary Bond at Healyourposture.com

You can avoid walking mistakes with our top tips to make your walking faster, smoother and more efficient. Take a look at our tips and have a look at our walking boots on FieldandTrek.com.

·         Posture

Ensure your head is neutral, your shoulders are relaxed and your stomach is tucked in for the most efficient walking position.

·         Arm motion

Your bent arms should move in a natural motion without crossing your body’s centre line, to counterbalance your legs.

·         Footwear

Your footwear should be the right size and weight for you with full arch support. They should not have been used too much or need to be broken in as these will cause blisters.

·         Foot strike

When your foot strikes the floor, it should not make a flapping or slapping noise but the foot strike should instead be smooth.

·         Training

You should take one rest day at least every week to prevent exhaustion. Rest days will allow your body to recover from the walking. Training should not exceed one hour each day.

·         Dehydration

Water should be sipped every 15 to 20 minutes during, before and after walking to prevent dehydration during the activity.

·         Striding

If you over stride, the walk becomes clumsy and loud. To walk faster, you need to take shorter and quicker steps.

FieldandTrek.com has a large range of walking boots and walking gear. Ranging from Karrimor to Berghaus, we have all the walking equipment you will need to keep hiking.