POSE WALKING TECHNIQUE

There is a certain interest in the Pose Walking (PW) technique*, which I am trying to satisfy through our short video clip and the present article. There is no possibility to present all aspects of this topic within this short article, so it’s just a brief introduction and some instructions. In spite of quite a significant difference between running and walking they have similar or common mechanical and biomechanical premises. Because we live in the gravity field we subordinate to this law no matter what kind of movement we produce at the moment.

Walking in this case is no different from running. Despite the fact that in walking we always have a ground contact with one or two feet we still need to fall forward in order to move forward and change the support during falling from one leg to the other. So our speed of walking depends on the degree of falling (leaning forward, which is the degree of deviation of the GCM of the body from the point of support) and the frequency of changing supports (stride frequency).

The following premises basically define the major requirements to efficient walking technique.

• Fall forward only from the ball of the foot.
• Don’t push off with the support leg or foot.
• Keep knees very slightly bent or just not locked.
• Touch the ground with the rear part of the foot, but then quickly transfer the body weight on the ball of the foot.
• Pull the support foot from the ground and bring the swing leg to midstance (Walking Pose) to fall forward again.
• Increase your walking speed by leaning forward more and more often by changing support quicker.
• Keep your body straight, arms bent in elbows according to your speed and stride frequency.
• Avoid efforts beyond necessary to keep your body on support and to change support.
• Do not bend in your hips. Strong and formed hips (position and strength) are the base of efficient falling and changing support.
• Do not worry about stride length – it is a function of leaning forward.

In walking, even at the fastest speed, you can’t bring your cardio-vascular system to the level of exhaustion as in running, but it gives a good load on the body and could be a good base for your further conditioning. The PW technique allows you to avoid an unnecessary load on your joints and muscles, but gives you all the benefits of an aerobic exercise.


*I need to make a note that the PW is not the race walking, which is performed according to special rules of IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation), and has very specific features of walking technique. There are two major rules of race walking technique controlled by a special race walking style group of referees, who are checking the race walkers as to the constant contact with the ground and to keeping their knees straight during the support time in order to prevent a flying phase, which would transfer a race walker into running. Those are, mildly speaking, artificial rules, and I would not have developed anything like this, but I accept and respect them as such.

Dr.Romanov