Is Your Walk Building Your Body or Aging It?

How to improve your walking posture, strengthen your core and glutes, and release tight hips and spine

Let’s talk about walking.

I love when a client says, “at the end of our session can we look at my walk?”

Because walking isn’t just something we do, it’s a reflection of how our entire body is functioning. And once you start noticing how people walk, it’s hard to unsee.

I tell my clients all the time: just start people watching in New York. You’ll see it everywhere. Someone rolling onto the outside of their feet. Another with knees collapsing inward. Shuffling steps. A hip that hikes higher on one side. Arms stiff by their sides, never swinging. Shoulders slanting. Thousands of little variations of gait gone wrong.

And the thing is, our bodies are incredible at compensating. They’ll get you from point A to point B no matter what. But all of those little patterns add up. Short term, you move. Long term, they wreak havoc on your joints, compress your spine, and slowly age your body. That’s why so many people end up with hip and knee replacements, chronic back pain, or a body that feels older than it is.

But here’s the flip side: when you walk well, every step becomes medicine.

Walking with good posture strengthens your core and glutes. Pushing off your big toe naturally fires your glutes and opens the front of your hips.Letting your pelvis rotate while your ribs counter rotate with the help of arm swing wrings out your obliques and builds core stability.Articulating through your feet, striking the heel, rolling through, and pushing off the big toe keeps your joints aligned and your spine decompressed. Walking with breath creates rhythm, circulation, and energy instead of fatigue.

🎥 Watch Video Here!

This is why posture is so foundational. There is a reason yoga has an asana that is literally you “just” standing, mountain pose. Because there is so much going on between gravity compressing us and stress pulling us out of alignment. Standing well is hard enough. Add movement to it and you see just how many ways the body can compensate and how important it is to get it right.

So when you walk, here’s what to think about:

Walking Checklist

• stand tall with your ribs stacked over your pelvis (ribs level and not flaring)

• breathe with your steps

• let your pelvis rotate (see exercise below for guidance)

• let your ribs counter rotate with your pelvis

• allow your arms to swing

• feel your legs lengthening out of the hips and swinging underneath you

• strike with your heel, roll through, and push off your big toe

Here is a simple exercise you can do to help encourage your hips to rotate when you walk, because it’s too much to think about in the moment.

In this first movement, both knees are bent. You’re elongating one thigh forward, and that small reach rotates the pelvis and gently lifts one hip off the mat.

🎥 Watch Hip Rotation Correction Here!

In the second movement, one leg is extended on the floor. Same idea, that leg is reaching forward to rotate the pelvis. This restores mobility in the pelvis and helps open the hip.

Try one side 5 to 10 times, then pause and feel the difference between your two sides.

As always, move slowly and mindfully.

Walking is not just exercise. It’s a daily practice that can either keep your body young and strong or accelerate the aging process.

Your walk can build you up or break you down. The choice is in every step.

With love,

Regan