Standing and walking · 2 min read

On your feet

Hips aching after standing in a queue, low back tight by the end of a walk? It is not your shoes. It is how your weight is sitting in your body.

Most standing and walking pain comes down to one thing: your weight is not being carried evenly. You lean into one hip, roll out through the feet, or let the pelvis tip forward, and your muscles end up doing a job your skeleton should be doing for free.

The setup

1. 1

   Feet hip width apart, pointing forward

   Not turned out. Weight even on both feet rather than sunk more heavily into one side. This is the position your skeleton can hold on its own, which is the whole point of finding it.

2. 2

   Let your tailbone drop back and down

   Your pelvis wants to sit level, neither tipped forward nor tucked under. Level is where the low back stops holding you up and gets to rest.

3. 3

   Stack your shoulders over your hips

   Then let your head float on top rather than jutting forward. Stacked, the whole column carries itself and nothing has to brace.

The habit

1. 1

   Reset your weight every few minutes

   Standing in a queue, at the sink, waiting anywhere: check in and put your weight back evenly on both feet. It drifts onto one hip without you ever noticing it go.

2. 2

   Push off through the whole foot

   When you walk, feel the push come from the whole foot leaving the ground behind you, not from rolling off the inside edge of it.

3. 3

   Stuck in one spot? Prop one foot up

   On a low stool or a stack of books while you cook or stand at a counter. It tilts the pelvis and takes the strain straight off your low back. Switch feet every fifteen minutes so the other side does not end up carrying it all.

4. 4

   Do not lock your knees

   Standing with the knees pushed back and locked is the one people get wrong most often. It feels like resting. It is quietly aggravating your low back all day.

If a hip or a knee is buckling, or you get sharp pain rather than plain fatigue when you stand or walk, that is your sign to see a professional rather than push through it.

Written by Lee Albert, neuromuscular therapist, author, and creator of Integrated Positional Therapy.