Practicing Walking
Aug. 12th, 2019 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callunavI have started taking walks, going in the morning in order to get outside before the heat and humidity get oppressive. I do it for a lot of reasons, and they can all be summed up as practicing.
I am practicing leaving the house every day, even if I don't have any other business taking me out. I'm unemployed at the moment, and when I have no structure and a tight budget, I sink back to a lowest energy level which is not terrible for me but not the best, either.
I am practicing doing something that makes me sweat every day. Staying at home all day may not be terrible for my psyche, but sitting in front of my computer all day is not doing good things for my body - or my body image.
I am practicing observing the world around me when I take things at a walking pace. I think I've noticed more about my neighborhood in two weeks of walks than I have in a year of driving and occasional biking.
I am practicing that semi-meditative state of being aware without doing a lot of thinking. Thoughts happen and I let them pass through my mind and slip away again without stress, and bring myself back to noticing the shapes of trees and the colors of weeds and the sensations in my body.
I'm also practicing the physical act of walking. I did 10 weeks of physical therapy for knee pain this spring, during which time the PT first assessed me as having pretty good strength in my lower body, and then devoted all his time to giving me strengthening exercises. It was only in the last few weeks that he - with an air of giving in to me - focused more on body-mechanics, as it became clear that I have been walking in ways that cause stress and eventual pain for most of my life.
(This sometimes makes me angry: why didn't anyone notice - or, if they did notice, care - that my ankles turned in when I walked so that I was walking on my instep, from pre-school on? Why--ah, well. There's a lot of 'why's like that relating to my childhood. I try to let the anger slip through my mind and out again. Sometimes it's productive; usually it isn't.)
So, as I walk in the mornings, I practice. I practice hard. It takes concentration to keep it all working together: Hips tucked, aligned with my femurs so that my spine is straight. Quads, hip abductors, and calves tensing in the right ways to keep my knees aligned - it feels to me like I'm rotating them outward, but that's because I'm used to them collapsing inward. Ankles tensed against the calves to maintain the sensation of torque that keeps my feet touching the ground on the edge, the balls of the toes, and the heel, but not the arch. And while I'm at it, pick up my feet, don't scuff.
This is work. Sometimes I can't go far enough to get a good sweat up because my muscles are tired. This is where the strength the PT was talking about comes in - but it's useless until I'm using it.
I learned to walk around the usual age, I think. I suspect I will continue practicing for the rest of my life.
I am practicing leaving the house every day, even if I don't have any other business taking me out. I'm unemployed at the moment, and when I have no structure and a tight budget, I sink back to a lowest energy level which is not terrible for me but not the best, either.
I am practicing doing something that makes me sweat every day. Staying at home all day may not be terrible for my psyche, but sitting in front of my computer all day is not doing good things for my body - or my body image.
I am practicing observing the world around me when I take things at a walking pace. I think I've noticed more about my neighborhood in two weeks of walks than I have in a year of driving and occasional biking.
I am practicing that semi-meditative state of being aware without doing a lot of thinking. Thoughts happen and I let them pass through my mind and slip away again without stress, and bring myself back to noticing the shapes of trees and the colors of weeds and the sensations in my body.
I'm also practicing the physical act of walking. I did 10 weeks of physical therapy for knee pain this spring, during which time the PT first assessed me as having pretty good strength in my lower body, and then devoted all his time to giving me strengthening exercises. It was only in the last few weeks that he - with an air of giving in to me - focused more on body-mechanics, as it became clear that I have been walking in ways that cause stress and eventual pain for most of my life.
(This sometimes makes me angry: why didn't anyone notice - or, if they did notice, care - that my ankles turned in when I walked so that I was walking on my instep, from pre-school on? Why--ah, well. There's a lot of 'why's like that relating to my childhood. I try to let the anger slip through my mind and out again. Sometimes it's productive; usually it isn't.)
So, as I walk in the mornings, I practice. I practice hard. It takes concentration to keep it all working together: Hips tucked, aligned with my femurs so that my spine is straight. Quads, hip abductors, and calves tensing in the right ways to keep my knees aligned - it feels to me like I'm rotating them outward, but that's because I'm used to them collapsing inward. Ankles tensed against the calves to maintain the sensation of torque that keeps my feet touching the ground on the edge, the balls of the toes, and the heel, but not the arch. And while I'm at it, pick up my feet, don't scuff.
This is work. Sometimes I can't go far enough to get a good sweat up because my muscles are tired. This is where the strength the PT was talking about comes in - but it's useless until I'm using it.
I learned to walk around the usual age, I think. I suspect I will continue practicing for the rest of my life.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-12 08:49 pm (UTC)What I did get from my PT which was useful was constant reiteration of how interconnected everything is in the legs. That seems obvious, but it's much more meaningful than it sounds: it's quite possible to be having pain in your ankles from something odd you do with your hips. I get knee pain, not hip pain and usually not ankle, but it's really clear I have to change how I use all three to get any improvement. So, if you do get someone to watch you walk and see if anything looks off, make sure they're looking at everything about how you walk, not just the ankles.