For all the health benefits associated with taking a good brisk stroll, walking is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other – and not doing it properly can cause a multitude of problems.
“We tend to walk the same way now as when we first learned to walk,” says Susan Tulley, a British podiatrist at Healthpoint, Abu Dhabi. “The body adapts what we do through development, regardless of what is correct. Difficulties can become apparent as we age, since wear and tear on bones and joints occurs from work or leisure activities. These can lead to changes in our gait as pressures alter on each joint.”
Gait issues
“Even if someone doesn’t see me directly for a gait problem, I often find their back pain or other injury, on looking deeper, is a gait issue,” says Steven Marsland, a British chiropractor at the Canadian Medical Center in Abu Dhabi.
“When you walk, the foot’s the first thing to contact the ground, so all forces are transmitted through the foot and ankle to the rest of the body. If they’re not aligned properly, it causes stress and uneven forces to go into the knee, hip, pelvis and lower back, leading to problems in these areas.
“The most common problem is overpronation, where the foot and ankle roll inwards when walking. This causes the leg to internally rotate, putting stress on the knee and lower back. I see people everyday with this issue, which is aggravated by poor footwear.”
Make every step count but don’t overload
“Walking is a great exercise that has many health benefits, but like any other exercise, it can lead to injury,” says Amy Sheridan, a physiotherapist at International Knee and Joint Centre. “The greatest factor leading to injury is load, which is a combination of exercise intensity, frequency, and duration. Too little load and you won’t make any meaningful changes to your body, but overload can negatively affect your body.
“If you make a new year’s resolution to walk every day and you haven’t spent time walking in months, the first day, you might go for an hour-long walk and feel great. But doing this for a week straight, your heels start to hurt and you’re limping. I recommend progressive loading, which means slowly increasing how much you walk and only increasing one variable – either intensity, frequency or duration – at a time.
“Starting with four days a week of walking 20 to 30 minutes at an average pace gives you adequate rest days, allowing your body to recover. This can be increased weekly by either increasing the time to 30 to 40 minutes, increasing the walking speed, or increasing to five days a week.
“If pain arises, the load should be decreased. Once the pain subsides, the load can be progressed again.”
Buy the right footwear
French physiotherapist Marilyne Lopes from Dubai’s Kuur Rehabilitation advises regular doses of shoe-shopping.
“If we keep using old shoes without changing the sole, the used sole brings us even more into our previous deviation, thereby aggravating it. Problems ranging from stiffness and cramps to early arthritis can occur. We should resole our shoes or buy new shoes once we see a deformity on the sole. Runners should change their shoes every six months and after every marathon.
“It’s better to go shoe shopping in the afternoon, when your feet are at their widest. Avoid pointed shoes and choose a material that can spread easily and adapt with the heat of the foot, like leather or nubuck. Plastic shoes and fish skin (which are popular now) are quite rigid and should be avoided by people with wide feet. Buying a size up is not ideal because it creates too much friction – except when it comes to hiking shoes. When you’re hiking, your feet get swollen, so you need a size up. Wearing two pairs of socks can help against friction, because it causes friction between the two socks, instead of the socks and the skin.”
Walk right
“Walk tall, walk long, walk loose,” says Irish chiropractor Gary Fitzgerald, from Wellbeing Medical Centre in Dubai. “Maintain an upright posture, with your head up to reduce tension in your neck and allow yourself to breathe fully and deeply. Slightly exaggerate the length of your stride, in order to relax your hips and loosen your lower back muscles.
“When people are in pain, they walk with a shorter stride as they’re subconsciously trying to protect themselves. However, this causes the muscles to want to tighten more. By walking in a more relaxed way, your muscles also relax.
“Walk with an even stride length on both sides and relax your shoulders, allowing your arms to swing freely while moving one arm in coordination with the opposite leg. Most importantly, enjoy it. If people don’t enjoy what they’re doing, they’re far more likely to fall back into bad habits.”
Flip the flip-flops
Because we live in a hot climate, people often choose shoes based on keeping cool, or convenience, instead of what’s best for their feet, according to Marsland. “Flip-flops give the foot no support and cause you to walk in an unnatural way, so only use them to nip to the pool.
“I recommend a supportive shoe such as Birkenstock. Even better are training shoes like Asics. Some people need to go one step further and get orthotics made. If you have to wear heels, don’t wear anything above a 1.5- inch heel, which should be more wedge-shaped than stiletto.”
This article has been amended to correct Amy Sheridan’s place of employment from an earlier version.
artslife@thenational.ae
