You’ve probably been putting one foot in front of the other without a second thought, but chances are you’re walking wrong.
“Anybody and everybody can walk better,” Joanna Hall, a sports scientist and the founder of the WalkActive method, told The Post. “If we can take something that is like the glue of our life and achieve it to the best of our ability, the effect can be deeply profound.”
Hall revealed the four common missteps she sees people make while pounding the pavement, which can not only trip up fitness goals but also take a major toll on the body.
But, first: Why are we walking wrong?
Hall said it boils down to three main pitfalls.
First, muscular imbalances in the body. Walk wrong or with poor form, and you’re putting some muscles into overdrive while leaving others in the dust.
Second, our sedentary lifestyle. We’re increasingly glued to our desks, hunched over our phones and sitting all day — leading to muscle atrophy and stiffness.
Third, our personal experiences. This includes accidents that cause lasting injuries, previous surgeries or even differences in leg lengths. Pregnancy, too, can leave its mark on gait.
“This tricky triangle are the three reasons why our good intentions are being thwarted,” Hall said. “They create four common mistakes that the vast majority of us make.”
No. 1: Using the wrong muscles
If you’ve ever felt a twinge of lower back pain after a walk, you’re probably relying on the wrong muscles to power you forward.
“The first mistake people make is overusing their hip flexor muscles, which are naturally tight,” Hall said. “We actually want to be tapping into our posterior chain” — the muscles running from the upper back down to the calves.
When you lean too heavily on your hip flexors, and pull in your glutes and abs, the tightening motion limits your stride length and leads to a stiff, robotic walk. In fact, research suggests that overusing those hip flexors can shorten the distance you’re able to walk.
“Our intentions are good, but the movement recruitment pattern is not serving us well,” Hall said.
No. 2: Passive feet
Next up: Landing flat-footed, or as Hall calls it, a “passive foot strike.”
Each foot has a whopping 26 bones and 33 joints designed for stability, flexibility and body weight support while absorbing impact and propelling you forward.
“Wherever we have a joint, we’re meant to have movement,” Hall said. “But when we walk wrong — because we have a passive foot strike and overuse our hip flexors — it negates our ability to use all the joints in our feet.”
To make matters worse, modern footwear often comes with a narrow fit, forcing toes to scrunch together and limiting their natural spread. This restriction alters gait and can contribute to a passive foot strike.
Walking with a flat-footed stride can lead to pain and discomfort, especially in the knees, Hall explained. It could also prevent hamstrings from functioning properly, further throwing off walking mechanics.
No. 3: Head position
You might be walking with your feet, but your head is another major player in the game.
“People tend to lean forward from the head,” Hall said (think: looking down at your phone during your commute). “This has huge implications on the way the body moves.”
When you’re standing tall, your head weighs about 10 to 11 pounds. But when you lean forward, it can feel much heavier and put a major strain on the muscles in your upper back, limiting the spine’s ability to rotate fully, Hall said.
“We want to encourage rotation of the spine because it improves our mobility and our posture,” she added.
Tilting your head forward also restricts your ability to take a deep breath. When you breathe, Hall said, the diaphragm should have 10 centimeters of range, but when you lean forward, the diaphragm’s movement reduces by 3 to 4 centimeters.
“That means the volume of oxygen coming into the body is reduced,” she said.
It can even weigh down the mental health benefits of walking.
Hall explained that holding your head high enhances optic flow — the perception of objects moving past us as we walk — which helps calm the regions of the brain responsible for stress and anxiety.
“If someone goes out for a walk for their mental well-being, but they’re walking with poor technique and looking down, the benefits are actually reduced,” Hall said.
No. 4: Neglecting your arms
More often than not, Hall said, your arms are probably just hanging there, doing nothing while you walk.
“When the arm doesn’t do anything, we’re losing out on the ability to have whole body movement,” she shared. “It specifically limits our ability to utilize the abdominal muscles and create shape around the waistline.”
Engaging your arms while walking at a brisk pace activates upper and lower body muscles — helping you burn more calories in the process.
But neglecting your arms can wreak havoc on your posture and limit spine rotation. Sound familiar? It’s all part of a vicious cycle, with each of these walking mistakes feeding into the next, Hall said.
