Do your shoulders move when you walk?
This weekend was what I'd refer to as great walking weather. I'm optimistic that we are finally out of Ontario snow season (fingers crossed) and summer's around the corner. The morning and after dinner walks had a crispness in the air and the bugs are thankfully a little slow waking up. As I walk the local trail, there is an emergence of buds, foliage, weeds and critters coming out of hibernation, and that includes the two-legged species awakening from a winter of inertia. I love to watch bodies walking in front of me or moving towards me and dial into my clinical mindset to decipher why their gait is a little wonky.
People are definitely out again. They might be prepping for golf (without the cart), or with a pup that needs exercise, or just clearing their head — but whatever the reason, this daily constitution of a walk gives time to move our bodies. What may also be evident is the reality that walking doesn't feel as fluid as it has in the past. Whether it's a foot that's grumbling after winter pickle ball, a hip that's barking, or simply tension tugging on the muscles, there are ways to move more comfortably before the official start of summer.
Before you say out loud "I'm not as young as I used to be" or "I'm just a little stiff", let's pause on that thought. Most of us are familiar with the loud protests of our body when it's not happy, but honestly, very few of us listen in the same diligent way to the quieter conversations within — the ones that can offer real insights into where the problem might be originating. As a Clinical Education educator, one of our hopes is that you become better versed in YOU.
During a clinical education assessment, we often have people walk around while asking pointed questions about their movement or lack of movement, as it turns out. It lets them dial their attention into specific areas. When I ask the question "do you think your shoulders are moving?", it's very often answered with "are they supposed to?” Eeeks, uh, yes, they are.
Please don't mistake the slight swing of the forearm to a full swing of the whole arm, because for most of us, it's pretty much a non-starter.
When your shoulders aren't moving, it's time to get curious. The upper body can directly be impacted by your lower body. A change in your gait could be due to a niggle in your foot, knee or hip, or one side of your waist that never fully releases. That may have started with shifting weight to avoid pain and ultimately causing a muscle to work overtime in contraction. Eventually it becomes your movement pattern that’s set as “normal” in your brain. That little bit of tension has created a slight hike of the hip, which then changed the pattern of movement, all the way to the shoulders. Based on experience, the real catalyst for creating change in your shoulders is developing your ability to notice “the stickiness” through deeper body awareness.
There's proprioception, our awareness of how we move in space, and interoception, our awareness of what's happening inside the body. Clinical somatic work highlights both. The better we become at sensing the patterns and habits that have crept in over time, the clearer we can be in our approach to reduce or shift them.
I'm not going to offer movement suggestions here because I think working in a class setting or 1-1 is far more insightful than trying to decipher directions on a page. When we are unable to walk comfortably, we won’t do it. That in turn negates some pretty important benefits of walking for our health— bone density, muscle strength, a daily dose of vitamin D, and the regulation of cortisol levels. It’s the underpinning of a healthier you and it's freaking important. We don't want more issues tumbling down from a tight waist muscle that could have been shifted relatively easily.
I've thrown out a few insights on walking, awareness, and benefits that sit beneath the surface. The question is: are you content to accept the potential shifts in your health as part of getting older, or are you curious about what might be possible to keep you moving a little easier?
From my perspective as a movement teacher, nervous-system-led or brain-based movement offers a gentle way to deepen awareness of your blind spots in movement and to create the possibility of change without force. When your body begins to feel safer, it is more willing to let go of habits that are no longer serving it. Personally, I can't imagine where I'd be without the practice of Hanna Somatics. It's given me the opportunity to become more fluent in my own body — like my own master class in "ME -- 101". I'd like to think I'd score 99 out of 100. Where do you think you'd land?