Hi, everybody. Patrick LeRouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I help people that truly need to be active in their life. I help them eliminate pain for the long term and enhance their performance.
Folks, this week’s tip is all about walking.  I’m outside, I’m having fun here, and I’m going to show you that walking is a key and a place to practice proper movement all the time. How often do we walk? All the time, so we have practice everywhere. Every time we walk you want to notice what’s going on. I want to show you a couple key things to focus on.
One, ankle mobility – you want to make sure your ankles are actually moving. Two, you want to make sure your hamstrings and your glutes are actually functional. Three – what’s happening within the arms? A lot of people hold things in their arms and things like that. That’s a bad thing per se and, as you guys know, there’s no such thing as good or bad – there’s just pros and cons. But, if you do have a way not to hold anything in your arms, that’s perfect because then you could actually watch how much your arms sway.

Number one, let’s work with the ankles. What you want to do is every time you take a step, you want to actually think – floppy ankle. As you start to walk, let’s say, you want to think – floppy ankle, floppy ankle. When you push off, your foot is almost going to be in this back position and your big toe is actually going to be bending. If somebody was behind you, they can look at the back of your shoe, at the bottom of your shoe, and at the end of your stride. Because you’re in this position and your big toe is extended, it’s actually going to tell the rest of your body to work. Which now works its way all the way up the posterior chain and asks the glute and the hamstring to actually fire to bring your leg up so you can bring it back down.
If you’re doing this properly and you’re walking, it’s going to land right underneath you. It’s always going to land right underneath you, so you’re never going to be heel striking. You’re never going to be reaching out in front of you striking at the heel.  The force of the energy that you’re coming down with is going to run all the way back, landing on your back. If your big toe and ankle range of motion start to get better, your back is going to get better. Our second foundation with our glute and our hamstring will also start to work because that needs to do this to pick your leg up and bring it back down.
Next, I’m going to walk in front of you now. As you’re doing a number like that, you want this elbow to be where this opposite knee is. If you take short choppy steps, you’re going to notice these people that walk like this. But if you take longer steps and you’re here, you’re going to also notice they’re heel striking. But if you’re doing everything properly, it’s going to find that sweet spot, where you’re not completely here, but it’s going to be sweet, nice, and easy all the way through. You’re going to notice how the opposite knee correlates with the opposite elbow and hand.

 
You want to start learning how to do this, because this, as you go through here, you’re going to notice a slight twist in the back and notice many different things. If you can get this to work properly straight: one, speed is going to increase altogether because you’re more efficient, all the way through. You’re going to be swinging, which is going to bring momentum if you’re jumping, all the way through. It’s going to bring so much to you – as well as now you’re on, not the balls of your feet, but the arch support is actually going to be able to be your spring.
Your muscle tissues are going to start learning how to work. Everything is going to be going through, all because you’re in this back position. You’re able to spring through. So all the way through, big toe, push off. Somebody should be able to see the back part of your foot. Hamstring, glute, need to start working to pick you up, as well as the opposite arm, opposite knee, cross crawl pattern as you go through here, like so, all the way through.
Now, walking is one thing. It’s a slower version of running. There’s different aspects of running, but if you practice this consistently, you’ll notice your running is going to improve so much better because running is just a faster way of walking. It’s supposed to be the same way, but the weight load is forward.
That’s your weekly tip for today. Enjoy. If you guys haven’t signed up yet, sign up, because this can happen every week. We can give you tips to eliminate pain for the long term. Enjoy this beautiful day. Enjoy. Bye.