- All right. Do you have low back pain?
While it's widely accepted that walking is one
of the best ways to treat low back pain,
but you need to do it properly
- Both Rick Alderman and Dr. Stewart McGill
recommend this style of walking
and we're gonna show you some easy tricks
on how to do it correctly.
- Excellent job, excellent.
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- According to Dr. Stewart McGill, walking correctly
in the appropriate distances is known
as nature's bone for your back.
- That's right.
Now, as far as walking correctly,
couple of the big peakers are,
you're gonna walk on flat surfaces
not on uneven or up and down hills.
That's very critical, as well as the distance you walk.
You're not gonna go out and walk 10 miles
and hope that that cures your back pain.
It's short distances as tolerated.
And we're gonna show you the key parts
of how to walk properly, not just to distance.
Hold on.
- The first step is to avoid doing a hard heel strike
when you're bringing your foot forward like this.
- [Brad] That's right, Mike.
And this is almost most people walk
like this without thinking about the heel comes down.
There's a large amount of impact force
that goes through the joints,
particularly when the knee's fully extended
and that is experienced in the knee joint,
the hip, as well as the low back.
It's one thing we wanna avoid
and we're gonna show you how to.
- So what you wanna do instead is land
on your forefoot or middle foot when you land.
- And you can see Mike has the heel,
there's actually no force on the heel here.
He has shortened his stride up slightly and that helps.
Now and look at his knees slightly flex.
We call this the soft knee.
So the impact is minimized because
of the forefoot and the soft knee,
and the back is much more comfortable with this.
Now I'm gonna show you another trick
that I really like to do this without thinking about it
'cause this is kind of hard, isn't it, Mike?
- Yeah. It takes time to learn.
- That's right.
- It's an important thing to look at
when walking too, is your shoes.
So this shoe has a higher heel compared to this shoe.
This is a flat or minimalist shoe.
So with this, you're not gonna wanna land on your heel
because it's gonna be more problematic
and kind of painful almost.
You're gonna wanna naturally land more on your forefoot
which will lead to the proper walking mechanics.
- That's right.
They call 'em, also call 'em zero drop
because they're even the distance
and the sole's same here as it is in the heel.
So yeah, just another point. - Yeah.
And these are minimalist, so there's not much cushioning.
You can get a zero drop that still has cushioning as well.
- Right. That's what I have.
Okay, I'm gonna show you a neat little trick
that will help you perform this forefoot walking
so you don't have to think about it.
I really like it.
I've been using it myself.
Take some two inch wide masking tape like I have here,
maybe you have some at home already.
It can go narrow if you want it.
Take some popcorn, uncooked popcorn
or baked or whatever it's called, unpopped,
and put about four or five of 'em on there.
This is gonna be a little different for each individual.
And then you're gonna take this
and look down here at Mike's foot.
Can you pull that back?
Put it like this.
Go ahead and tape that on your heel.
So what you're gonna find out is when you, now yep.
Pull the sack over and you're gonna put that in your shoe.
And when you walk, and you feel those little
popcorn kernels dig into your heel,
it's gonna be a little uncomfortable
and you're gonna automatically forefoot walk.
Now it's gonna depend on
if you have a shoe that has a thick cushioned insert,
it'll be less comfortable or more comfortable.
If you have a thin sole like Mike has,
you're gonna feel it more.
So that's gonna vary individual
depending on your shoes, et cetera.
- So I've never done this before,
so putting these in my shoe kind of feels like
you know when you get a little pebble in your shoe
and you're out walking and it's really a nuisance.
It feels like that.
But if I don't put weight down on my heel, I don't feel it.
So it feels more natural.
So this is gonna make you automatically wanna strike
in your forefoot and continue through
without putting your heel down on the ground.
'Cause that feels like you're stepping on some Legos.
- Yeah. That's popcorn.
Now I've done this throughout the day
and what happens is my calf muscles get a little tired.
So you're not gonna do this all day long.
If you want to try this,
you'll have that on for an hour or two
depending on how much walking you do.
Take it off and you'll feel
that the transformation come without over time.
It'll be like a muscle memory thing.
- Yeah, it feels awkward initially.
It feels like you're learning to walk again
because I did this a few months ago
'cause Rick recommended it for me
to engage my buttock muscle more.
- But not the popcorn. - Not the popcorn part, no.
But walking on my forefoot
versus my heel striking,
and it felt really awkward for a week
and now it's becoming more normalized.
I can't walk as fast yet, but it is coming along gradually.
- Right, so that may sound like a lot of work, but,
if you wanna have less back pain, better walking mechanics
that's gonna save your knees, your hips,
as well as your back, it's worth doing.
So, very good.
One thing we'd like to end this video is with-
- Be healthy.
- Be happy.
- And be helpful.
- Yeah, the three B's.
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