This exercise will allow you to regain and maintain a more stable upright walking gait with your spine more aligned and your posture more upright. Do the exercise five times in a row slowly, five times a day, for five days. By the end of the fifth day, it will teach you how to easily reset or autocorrect the position of your head and neck when walking helping you engage your core muscles as you walk.
When you walk with your head upright and centered over your shoulders. With your line of sight towards the ground ahead of you and your feet contacting the ground from heel to toe. The arm on one side of the body and the leg on the other side of the body swinging forward and backward together in unison it maintains the natural alignment of the spine and engages and strengthens the core muscles as you walk. You look younger and feel younger because you're moving your body the way it was designed to move to maintain or regain upright posture, balance, and stability.
When you walk looking down at the ground in front of your feet the length of your walking stride becomes too short for your feet to contact the ground from heel to toe and engage your core muscles that maintain your body’s balance, upright posture, and stability. The top of your head, neck and spine become curved forward in front of the rest of your body and your spine stops maintaining its natural alignment with your head upright, aligned and centered over your shoulders. Your visual field becomes so small that unless something is right in front of your toes you won't see it or have enough time to safely step over it.
People who practice Tai Chi, martial arts, Qigong, yoga, and Ballroom Dancing maintain upright posture and their body’s alignment as they age. They move better, stay stronger and walk longer than other people their age. They fall less and have better long-term outcomes when they have an injury. It’s not their genes or a special diet that allows them to stay upright, walk longer and have better long-term outcomes after an injury. It’s how they move and the way they move all day every day that makes the difference. They’re easy to spot in a crowd because they keep their head upright and centered over their shoulders. Their feet contact the ground from heel to toe. The only time they look down towards their feet when walking is when they're on the stairs, in the dark, on a wet or slippery surface or when making a transition from on surface height to another.
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The human body is a complex, biological movement machine. Not only is it designed to develop and maintain upright posture, balance, and stability into old age, but it also designed to regain upright posture, balance, and stability after an injury. It will do all this for you, providing you walk with your head upright and your line of sight towards the ground ahead of you with your feet contacting the ground from heel to toe engaging your core muscles.
Holding your head upright has multiple advantages:
Your body was not designed to walk with your head down, looking at your feet. When you operate your body this way, you lose balance and stability, so you are four times more likely to fall.
If you walk with your head down:
When you walk with your head upright, you are operating your body as it was designed to work. You not only move better, but you also get stronger and can walk farther because you’re engaging your core muscles. You look and feel younger. In contrast, walking with your head down makes you look old. It guarantees your spine will become bent, you will lose the safeguards of balance and stability, you will react slower to the unexpected, and you will increase your risk of falling and getting injured.
When you look down at the ground in front of your feet as you walk you are more than four times as likely to fall as people who walk with their head upright and their line of sight towards the ground in the direction they're moving. You can glance down towards the ground when walking without dropping your head down and see almost up to your toes. The only time you should walk looking down at your feet are on a staircase, in the dark, on a wet or slippery surface or making a transition from one surface height to another.
When you look down at the ground in front of your feet as you walk or use a mobility device that doesn't support the front of your foot as your heel lifts off the ground and makes you walk with your head down to maintain balance, you will react slower, and increase your fall risk. You can usually maintain balance, but only at the expense of your spine’s alignment, and you will become bent over. You cannot activate your core muscles between your neck and waist that maintain the alignment of your spine and keep your head upright, so you will lose core strength. As Davis’s Law of orthopedic surgery about using muscles states, “Use it or lose it.” Watch ninety-nine-year-old English woman, Dinkie Flowers in the video below.
https://youtu.be/v60FkXqHcQY?si=acAy4uTAtFCaTU7n
Then ask yourself If sitting is the new smoking, what do you call walking with your head down, looking at your feet?
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