Foot, Ankle, Knee, Hip Alignment & Walking

James Drewe
Oct 1
3 min read

Whether you are standing upright without moving, or when you put your foot ahead of you on the ground whilst walking, gravity settles or compresses you into the ground. As it does so, a balancing act automatically takes place in the body.

In order to achieve perfect balance, whether you are standing either on both feet or on one foot, or even when you are in the process of walking, the body has to align itself vertically with the point of pressure on the feet/foot.

It's as though, in the act of applying pressure downwards with the foot, there is an upward rise of energy through the body, rather as though you were bouncing a rubber ball on the floor.

How do you walk?

This might seem a slightly ridiculous question, but, when you place your foot in front of you in order to move forwards, there is a process that takes place on the sole of the foot. It does it for a reason. This is the walking process.

Weight transfer on the foot when walking

You step with your heel - otherwise, you are tiptoeing!
The pressure moves forwards over the heel, and then up the little toe edge of the foot.
As the weight moves forwards, the pressure first of all goes towards the ball in front of the little toe before crossing the transverse arch of the foot (side to side, from little toe ball to big toe ball).
As the weight moves on to the ball just before the big toe, the balance aligns vertically.
As you move to the tip of the big toe, the rear foot is released, and you push off for the next step.

When you walk, it should feel almost as though your foot is 'rolling' towards the ball in front of the big toe.

The moment of poise

This is the moment when you have the weight on the ball just before the big toe. It's at this moment that the body aligns itself, from the ball of the foot, upwards through the ankle, and via the knee joint to the hip. If the alignments are correct, it continues up the spine to the neck, and you can feel your neck 'lengthening' without any intentional 'stretching' on your part.

In Alexander Technique terms, this is allowing your spine to release and lengthen.

When it goes wrong

If the weight comes off the wrong part of the foot when walking, e.g. the middle or little toes, all the alignments start to collapse. The line from the foot to the hip joint becomes displaced.

I have had this experience when having Plantar Fasciitis.

When walking, I didn't want to move the weight on to the big toe of one foot (the other was okay), it was too painful, and I started unintentionally using toes 3, 4, and 5 to 'push off'.

After a few days of this, I realised that my ankle was being strained (it was being forced to compensate), and it was affecting my hip on the same side (which was then also having to compensate). In other words, the geometry had gone wrong! The vertical alignment had been compromised, and parts of me were having to find an alternative way of aligning which wasn't as good as the original template.

The spine like a spring

The way to practise the correct method of walking is to focus on only one leg as you walk, and perhaps every 3rd or 4th step; it's too much trying to do it on every step.

As you walk, allow your pelvis/bum to fall/settle/compress into the foot on to which you are stepping. Try feeling as though the pelvis and the buttocks are very heavy, and as you place pressure on the foot, you allow the pelvis/bum to 'dangle'.

As you let it fall, and you simultaneously pressurise the stepping foot, allow your spine to undo so that it appears to 'float' upwards from the pelvis.

At the same time that you settle the pelvis, simultaneously settle the shoulders so that pelvis and shoulders now work together.

This takes some practise, but it pays dividends in the way that you move.

James Drewe teaches Tai Chi and Qigong in both London and in Kent and online.Details of weekly classes both live and online can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Tai Chi on one Saturday a month.