- Greetings, greetings fellow walkers!
- Hello!
- Hey, this is what I'd like to ask you.
Do you experience foot pain, knee pain, hip pain,
or even back pain while you're walking?
- Or right after?
- Or right, exactly.
This video's gonna help you out.
I have found the easiest way
that, in my mind, how you can learn
learn how to walk properly without awkward exercises.
- A good hint.
- Yeah. This is simple.
It's so simple it's...
scary. (Bob chuckles)
We'll be right back in 9.3 - I'm scared.
♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- So we have put out a number of videos over the last year
about walking mechanics, how to walk properly.
Take pressure off your joints, your back, your hips.
And Bob was talking about it to me.
And we're talking about walking
by Dr. Mark Cucuzzella.
- and Rick Olderman.
- Rick Olderman.
And they both support the same idea.
- The concept of how to walk. - Absolutely.
- And the whole idea is how to walk
without having a hard heel strain.
- Right, or locked knees.
- Or locked knees.
And I could not get this
through my head for the longest time.
And I'd say, "Bob," - I know.
- "You can't walk that way!"
I'd say, "this is how you're going to have to walk."
(Bob laughs)
And so it's like, nah, I'm not doing it.
I'm gonna walk my normal way.
But then, I realized something that changed my mind
because I'm a little stubborn,
but finally it got through.
- A little stubborn?
- A little stubborn. (laughs)
My daughter's the same way, I'm finding out.
- Oh my God.
- All right, let's go on.
Okay, let's take a closer look at the mechanics
and why specifically walking when you do a heel strike
like so, the heel comes in contact with the floor
and your knees-
- [Bob] Locked.
- [Brad] Yep. Fully extended.
That takes all the pressure and it goes through the joints,
and the hip, and the back.
There's no cushion there.
Now as opposed to-
- [Bob] Also, your glutes still work.
- Ah, yes.
Yeah. So we're talking about those gluteus maximus muscles
- They shut off.
- And when that happens
that puts further stress.
- More stress.
- Yep, and then the hamstring,
there's a whole nother issue with that,
but that's another benefit.
Now, if you come down with your foot like this
at least flat foot or,
- [Bob] Or forefoot. - [Brad] Or forefoot
I don't know if you can see that very well like that.
- [Bob] You shouldn't hit the heel first.
- [Brad] Right.
And there's cushion there
and the knee automatically flexes slightly,
which gives more cushion.
So instead of the joints and the back
taking that impact like this,
we got cushion.
And I'm like exaggerating a little bit,
but you can-
- [Bob] Yeah, Rick calls it soft knees.
- [Brad] Soft knee, yes, exactly.
And you know Dr. Cucuzzella, he's a runner
and he talks about running this way
which can really save the body.
- Both of us did that. - Yep.
So whether you're running or you're walking,
that's the goal.
And I'm gonna show you the trick
on what convinced me on how to do this.
- Okay, so this is what happened to me,
and I realize this without even thinking about it.
I'm walking on a hard tile floor
without my shoes on.
- Right.
- It happened to be actually where I swim.
And so I don't have my shoes on, naturally
'cause I'm gonna jump in the pool,
and I realize that I automatically
walk with my forefoot, exactly like we mentioned,
Forefoot strike first, slight bend of the knee.
And it's just natural
'cause I know when I hit on that tile like this,
- [Bob] It would hurt.
- [Brad] It hurts a little bit.
It's not, it's not a big ouch.
But it's like, you know, your body knows
that that's not right.
So automatically, I'm walking properly
because I'm walking on a hard floor.
And then I realize my balance is actually better
when I walk with my forefoot,
because my toes are in contact with the surface,
and your toes allow
- A lot of proprioception.
- Yep, lot of proprioception, a lot of balance qualities.
Your heel, you can't balance with your heels.
- Off you go.
- You can balance on your toes and forefoot very-
I mean that's what they're there for!
So there's a lot of benefits.
So, the whole idea is take your socks off-
or take your shoes off,
take your socks off
and walk on a hard surface.
- You only do a couple minutes a day.
- Yeah. You're not gonna go for a mile walk.
You only may walk 10 feet to start with
and then, you know,
maybe a minute or two in the morning
and you'll start to realize
your feet are for balance,
they're for proprioception
and they're for cushion, soft knees.
- Now, if you're a runner and young,
you might even try running on asphalt
for a short period of time with bare feet.
- Yeah. Yeah.
But not on a hot summer day.
- Yeah, it's hot.
Dr. Cucuzzella would mention that.
- Right now I've got a concrete driveway
and I do walk like that barefoot, you know.
- Like getting forced to.
- Just for a little while.
- Right.
- You know, and you start to realize
- Again, when its cool.
- It wakes up your feet,
it exercises small muscles in your feet.
It can be a really good thing to do.
Now, I'm not saying you're gonna
walk like this all the time, but-
- Right, just training.
- Yep, it's training.
And you may realize
and eventually may want to-
Do you wanna talk about shoes, Bob?
- Sure, sure.
- Okay, go ahead.
- Well, this shoe has no heel.
So it's the same heel all the way along.
- It's called a zero drop.
- Zero drop, right.
You're gonna have more of a tendency
to hit on the midfoot
as opposed to this one, which is a big heel.
- Yep. The heel is thicker here and thinner here.
So my heel inherently is higher.
- Right, you're gonna want to hit on the heel in that.
- Exactly right.
- It's gonna promote it.
- The thicker the heel,
the more you feel like doing that.
- Right.
- Without thinking about it.
So that can be something that you think about.
- Think about in the future.
- But if you do get zero drop shoes,
don't just throw your other ones away
and start wearing 'em
'cause it's too much too soon.
- Yep.
- You need to start doing that - I got sore from 'em, yeah.
- a few hours a day and then progress as the day goes.
That's an option for you if you'd like to do that.
- Start by walking, don't run on 'em.
- Right.
So once again, your balance is gonna be better,
it's gonna help you save your joints, your hips.
- It's gonna wake up your glutes.
- Yep. Wake up the glutes.
It's a wonderful thing.
Start out small, barefoot.
Gentle, gentle.
And progress.
- Have happy feet.
- Happy feet.
Happy feet, happy legs, happy body.
Very good!
It's actually serious and it will help you out.
Enjoy the day and walk on!
(both chuckling)
What do you say about that one?
- I like it.
- It just came out.
(upbeat guitar music)