Way to walk

Unoccupied hiking boots on a lovely hillside after a hard day's walk, by David Maters

For many of us, this most nat­ural, won­der­ful way of get­ting about can turn into a source of fear, anxi­ety and pain in later life. But it’s not inev­it­able. Read on to find out more about how age affects walk­ing. Or click to jump to the sec­tions on the warn­ing signs of poor walk­ing and self-​help tips for stronger, safer­walk­ing


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Is my walk­ing going down­hill?
Tips for bet­ter ways to walk

Age affects how we walk

Believe it or not, we all start to modify our ways of walk­ing as we get older. The reas­ons are com­plic­ated and not always well under­stood. But in gen­eral weRoad sign with hunched over old people crossing

  • walk more slowly,
  • take shorter strides, and
  • take more steps.

Some people develop a habit of walk­ing with their feet quite wide apart, oth­ers do the oppos­ite, tend­ing to walk with their feet on an ima­gin­ary tightrope.

And it’s very com­mon to see older people walk­ing hunched over, whether using a stick or not, with eyes glued to the ground in front of them and heads bent right for­wards. That hor­rible ‘little old lady’ pos­ture is about as age­ing as it gets.

Does it mat­ter?

Yes, how you walk really does mat­ter. Walking is basic to inde­pend­ent liv­ing, so once you start to become unsteady when you’re out and about, it’s a slip­pery slope to becom­ing house-​bound. Slow walk­ing, poor pos­ture and shuff­ling steps all increase your chances of tak­ing a trip, or worse, a fall.

Is this just down to get­ting older? In part, yes – though it’s cer­tainly not the whole story. Here, for instance are some other things that may subtly or sig­ni­fic­antly change your way of walk­ing:

• using a stick or walker

• habitu­ally wear­ing worn-​out, ill-​fitting or inap­pro­pri­ate foot­wear

• poor foot care, pain­ful corns, bunions etc

Pain and infirm­ity mess up walk­ing, too

It doesn’t need a lot of ima­gin­a­tion to under­stand how a pain­fully arth­ritic hip or knee can start to make you walk lop­sided. But a large num­ber of health prob­lems can cause subtle to major changes to ‘nor­mal’ walk­ing, includ­ing:

  • stroke
  • Parkinson’s and sim­ilar neur­o­lo­gical con­di­tions
  • chronic back pain
  • chronic shoulder or neck pain
  • visual impair­ment
  • foot deform­it­ies
  • impaired blad­der or bowel con­trol
  • dia­betic neuro­pathy (eg numb or pain­ful feet and legs)
  • foot or leg ulcers
  • balance-​related con­di­tions (Meniere’s, ver­tigo etc)
  • poor heart and lung func­tion
  • arth­ritic joints
  • stiff and swollen ankles
  • obesity

Then there’s the effects of med­ic­a­tions. Dizziness, swollen ankles and sud­den urgent needs to get to the loo are some of the com­mon side-​effects of drugs that can be haz­ard­ous for walk­ing.

So it’s down­hill all the way?

No. Regardless of whether you are cop­ing with a med­ical con­di­tion or bliss­fully free of them, the major­ity of older people develop poor walk­ing habits at least in part because of weak muscles, stiff joints and poor pos­ture. And all of these are things that you can improve, to help you walk more effi­ciently, con­fid­ently and safely.

Remember, too: a brisk daily walk is one of the best things you can do for your heart, your body and even your men­tal health. If you can keep on walk­ing, you’ll be able to cope with most of what life throws at you!

Is my walk­ing let­ting me down?
Age-​related changes to walk­ing habits tend to be subtle and long-​term, so you don’t always real­ise how much you’ve adap­ted your style. Do you recog­nise your­self in any of these state­ments?

‘I’m the slow­coach: my friends are always wait­ing for me to catch them up!‘
’The pave­ments here are a night­mare – I’m for ever catch­ing my toes on uneven pav­ings’
’Sure I trip over every now and then. Doesn’t every­one?‘
’I’ve had a couple of falls this year, but noth­ing ser­i­ous’
’Walking isn’t for fun, it’s a neces­sary evil’
’It’s obvi­ous that look­ing down at the ground is the safest way to walk’
’I hate catch­ing my reflec­tion in shop win­dows – they make me look depress­ingly old’
’It makes sense to hold on to the rail­ings while wait­ing to cross the road’
’I prefer to con­cen­trate when I’m walk­ing, so if I do have to talk or chat, I just stop and stand still’
’I avoid busy streets because these days other people never bother to get out of your way’

If this sounds like you – even a little bit like you – things are on the slide. Talk to your doc­tor, and read on below about how to start improv­ing the way you walk

Ways to walk bet­ter


Three women on a walk admire beautiful views in France, by SabrinaFollow these five pos­tural pos­it­ives:

♦ Lengthen your spine, walk with the top of your head touch­ing the sky

♦ Eyes down, not chin: keep your head level and bal­anced on top of your spine, using your eyes to glance at the path ahead

♦ Shoulders back and down, relax, open your chest and let the air in

♦ Gently draw in your lower abs to help sup­port your back and your bal­ance

♦ Walk with a ‘heel-​toe’ action

These strength exer­cises will build the muscles and con­fid­ence to help you stride out:

Heel raises
Toe raises
Sit and stand
Lunges
Hip wrap
The clam

These drills will guard your flex­ib­il­ity for fluid move­ment

Ankle loosen­ing
Calf stretch
Hamstring stretch
Chest stretch

And here are five paths to per­fec­tion…

♦ Take the tread­mill for a walk

♦ Practise power-​walking

♦ Graduate to rough ground for increased bal­ance and strength chal­lenges

♦ Join a ‘walk­ing for health’ group or Nordic walk­ing group for struc­tured exer­cise that will do won­ders for your over­all fit­ness

♦ Join a hik­ing group such as the Ramblers and dis­cover how to love walk­ing for its own sake.

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