Learning How to Walk (Chewing Gum Not Included)

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Learning How to Walk (Chewing Gum Not Included)

By Sara Eckel

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/health/nutrition/13fitness.html?

_r=1 & partner=rss & emc=rss & oref=slogin

AFTER Lynne Wu moved to New York from Cincinnati, she realized her

body wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of pavement-pounding

required in her adopted city.

" At the end of the day my lower back and ankles would hurt, " said Ms.

Wu, 40, a development consultant for nonprofit organizations. " I just

wasn't used to walking that much. "

Ms. Wu discussed her problem with her former yoga teacher in Ohio,

who made an unusual suggestion: why not take walking lessons?

Many people would have been insulted by such advice — don't we all

master this skill as a 1-year-old? — but to Ms. Wu it made perfect

sense. " I hate exercising, " she said. " So I thought, `What would

happen if I could walk properly and get a relaxed, centered workout

in a city like this?' "

Last January, Ms. Wu and her husband, Rob Gilson, signed up for

private walking classes with FitzGordon, a yoga teacher and

owner of Yoga Center of Brooklyn.

During 10 sessions over about seven months, Mr. FitzGordon trained

her to walk with her feet parallel, her weight evenly distributed and

her body aligned.

Ten months later, Ms. Wu still had ankle issues — she was in the very

late stages of pregnancy — but her back pain was gone and her walk

had changed drastically.

Few of us think we need a course in walking any more than we'd need a

course in breathing, but Mr. FitzGordon insists that most Americans

don't have a clue how to step, a problem he first noticed among his

yoga students. " People would enter with terrible posture, " he

said. " Then they'd do beautiful yoga, and listen to everything I said

about alignment. As soon as class ended, they went straight into the

bad posture. "

To help students take their practice into the street, Mr. FitzGordon

incorporated walking lessons into his yoga classes, as well as

teaching small group and individual sessions. His clients are mostly

people who have visited doctors, chiropractors and massage therapists

in search of relief for muscle or joint pain.

Under Mr. FitzGordon's instruction, the clients try to correct their

entire movement system rather than address aching knees or shoulders

in isolation. " The body is like a machine, " he said. " Each part has

it's own job, and everything is connected. "

But unlike a car, the body also has the ability to compensate if one

part breaks. " If you get a flat tire, you're not going anywhere, " Mr.

FitzGordon said. " But if you hurt your foot, you can limp and keep

going. " Thus, the entire machine is thrown out of whack.

Dr. Kolber, a neonatologist in Los Angeles who was suffering

from a herniated disc, was hoping to avoid surgery when he booked

several private walking lessons with Sherry Brourman, a yoga

instructor and physical therapist. As Ms. Brourman watched him walk

barefoot and shirtless through her studio, she noticed that he was

leaning away from the pain. Ms. Brourman helped him regain proper

alignment, with his weight falling on all four corners of his feet.

" Over time my gait looked more natural, and it became more easy and

more curative, " said Dr. Kolber, 46. " If I felt my back was acting

up, I'd go for a mile or two walk, and I'd feel better at the end

because I was making the right corrections. "

Ms. Brourman said most postural problems happen when the body's

muscles don't perform their intended job. For example, people who

don't use their stomach muscles when they walk cause strain by

forcing the back muscles to compensate.

The proper move is to make subtle realignments in the rest of the

body, like pushing the inner thighs back and untucking the tailbone.

Such adjustments may seem minor, but Ms. Brourman admits that not

everyone likes being told how to walk.

" It hits them where it hurts, " said Ms. Brourman, who is also an

author of " Walk Yourself Well " (Hyperion, 1999). " People want to feel

like they know how to do this. "

Dr. Haddad, an orthopedic surgeon with the Illinois Bone and

Joint Institute in Chicago, said exercise could help relieve certain

soft-tissue problems, but warned that it could not correct a bone

misalignment or deformity.

" You can't make your bones go in different direction than they want

to go in, " he said.

Forcing the body to move against its natural patterns and bone

structure could even lead to deeper problems, said Dr. ,

associate director of Women's Sports Medicine at Saint Francis

Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.

" If you're pushing yourself in a place that isn't comfortable, I'd

respect that, " she said. But both doctors agreed that if the focus

was on strengthening the trunk, centering your weight and breaking

bad habits like slouching, movement lessons could be helpful.

Of course, learning to walk properly is one thing. Breaking a 30- or

40-year habit is quite another.

Dr. Heidi Prather, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said people

with strong yoga practices who sign up for eight or more sessions

will be somewhat self-selecting in their ability to maintain, but

such discipline is rare in the general population.

" Sometimes I'll tell patients that their issues are more cerebral

than physical — they need to think about how they move, " she

said. " Most people don't want to do that. They want a quick fix. "

Two years after taking Mr. FitzGordon's program, Sharon Goldman said

she couldn't go back to her old walk if she tried. Ms. Goldman, 39,

injured herself during a midlife crisis; a painful divorce compelled

her to throw herself into numerous physical activities — running, in-

line skating, tennis — that her body wasn't prepared for.

For more than a year, she visited a number of doctors and physical

therapists to treat the pain that ran from her legs to her neck, but

she didn't experience long-term relief until she started working with

Mr. FitzGordon — in part because he spoke in plain, everyday language.

" They were saying essentially the same things, but the physical

therapist would say, `You need to get a sense of where you are in

space,' " said Ms Goldman, the executive editor of a marketing trade

magazine. " would say, `Don't tuck your tailbone.' "

Ms. Goldman does not think changing her gait alone prompted her

recovery. She also credited intensive physical therapy, as well as

yoga and Pilates, but learning to walk was the first step.