Walking is one of the most under-rated forms of exercise and we really take for granted how vital maintaining it is to the health of our body. In many ways it is similar to the heart and lungs and something we barely pay attention to until something goes wrong. It is then that we realize just how important it is to look after. Without a doubt walking is one of the most difficult movements to correct or rehabilitate after an accident, injury, or illness for the human gait cycle is such a complex series of movements with many moving parts all occurring within a split second. I am not going to spend too much time talking about how to improve walking in today’s article as we will need about 3000 more words to explain this. Instead, I want to relate this movement to how it can help with back pain and even hip pain which is something I come across a lot. One of the first things I tell many clients I see with back pain is to make “fast walking” a part of their training program for as you are about to see there is some amazing things that happen to your body from this type of movement.
During my 20 years as trainer specializing in working with people trying to recover from injury, I have made many mistakes and learned many valuable lessons.
In the early days I was constantly looking for the next new thing to help people and spent considerable time reading books and completing various training courses. While some of this was great and expanded my knowledge across many topics, I discovered that the best solutions were often found with the simplest exercises and activities. This is where I came to understand that walking can be a very effective tool to use as a corrective exercise.
I remember many years ago reading a book called the “Gift of Injury” by Brian Carroll and Dr Stuart McGill about a powerlifter who suffered a severe back injury that almost crippled him and how he rebuilt his body through exercise with the help of Dr McGill.
There was a part in the book he refers to the use of an interval walking program during his early stages of rehab that made a big difference to his treatment. Dr McGill prescribed him to walk 15 minutes at a brisk pace with swinging arms 3 times per day.
Here is what he describes as the reason behind this.
“Walking is the best tool we have in the essential early training of the muscles in the frontal plane. This simple movement engages and exercises the core muscles required to counterbalance a recovering back, and takes some of the load off the rear muscles. Pained individuals tend to carry an unnatural tension in their shoulders. Laxity is required in the shoulders to reduce spine load while walking which is why we encourage a jaunty arm swing to loosen those shoulder muscles as you stride.” – Dr Stuart McGill
Okay, let’s explain how walking helps to alleviate back pain.
Walking helps to strengthen the muscles that support your spine
We all know that the muscles around our trunk, core, and lumbar area (lower back) play a vital role in maintaining the stability and movement of the lower back. These muscles can become weak from sitting too much and an overall sedentary lifestyle, causing muscle imbalance and eventually poor spinal alignment and pain.
You only have to look at the picture in the video thumbnail below to see just how much pressure is placed on the discs from sitting.
Up to 185kg with sitting poorly and sitting poorly with load places 275kg of pressure.
To create the leg movements to walk, there must be some degree of core stability or otherwise you would be unable to walk.
In this case, your hip and leg muscles would move your pelvis, instead of your legs, and bend your spine causing you to collapse.
This is where we see the activation of the slings that connect the opposite sides of the body together to create motion during the gait cycle.
The timing is the critical part to making this movement efficient with faster walking speeds engaging the elastic tissue in the back to unload the spine. Without making it too complicated, your torso is a big energy producing machine which utilizes multiple aspects of walking to unload and reduce stress on the spine.
The video below gives you a detailed look at how to use the weight shifting principle to develop great use of these slings with movements specifically designed to improve core function during gait.
From a fundamental stand point, walking is the most basic of basic adult daily movements and is something we really don’t think about simply because we become really good at it. It is a software program we are born with and develops the minute we begin crawling as an infant. With every step your arms, hips and surrounding muscles activate to complete their role in the movement.
Each step is a series of small muscle contractions that work to keep the pelvis from sinking down on one side and bending the spine – Dr Stuart McGill
With most of us in jobs these days that require us to sit down for long periods it is essential we still devote time to getting outside and going for a good walk. Not only will you get some valuable Vitamin D but walking will help to keep your back in good health.
Even for me I have found my back and hips start to ache whenever I am stuck sitting behind the computer much more than normal. I make sure I start my day with a walk first thing in the morning, one at lunch and one at night.
When you walk, the health of your back muscles is improved in the following ways
•Increases blood flow.
Decreased physical activity can cause the small blood vessels of your spine to become constricted, reducing blood flow to the spinal muscles. Walking helps open up the blood vessels, increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to these muscles.
•Flushes out toxins.
Muscles produce physiologic toxins when they contract and expand. Over time, these toxins can accumulate within the lower back muscle tissues and cause stiffness. Walking helps flush out these toxins and improve flexibility.
These two factors can assist you in building strength in the muscles of your lower back and reduce the chance of pain.
They will not be enough to strengthen your body on their own as you still need to develop sound movement skills with bending in particular along with exercises to strengthen the legs. But it is a great start and a simple way to preserve some basic stability and strength.
Also do not forget walking provides other health benefits such as:
•Reduce and/or maintain an optimal weight
•Keep blood pressure under control
•Improve the levels of total cholesterol
•Decrease anxiety and depression
•Reduce the risk of heart disease and dementia
Walking also helps increase the production of endorphins (natural pain-inhibiting hormone), decreasing the overall perception of pain.
Walking increases flexibility in your hips and lower back
It’s funny how walking can actually improve your flexibility when you do not spend any time stretching.
Walking increases your flexibility by stretching specific muscles, such as your hamstrings, erector muscles of the spine, and even the hip flexors. The flexibility of your spinal ligaments and tendons is also increased, helping to improve the function of the hip and overall range of motion in your lower back.
Lack of physical activity can cause the muscles and joints in your hips to become stiff.
This stiffness becomes a huge problem to your lower back as the hips are mainly responsible for providing mobility with movement like bending which is often the pain trigger with back pain.
When the hips become too stiff it forces the lumbar spine to sacrifice its stability to find the extra movement and this is the beginning of the bulging disc . It also inhibits the glutes from performing their role correctly leading to significant weakness that will become a huge problem moving forward.
This is the problem those with piriformis syndrome face with their hip dysfunction.
There is a ton of information we could share with you relating to the hips and if you feel trouble in this area you can read more about the role of the hips in the article below.
•Are your tight hips the cause of your back or knee pain
All this sounds great but how does walking help back pain?
Does Walking Really Prevent Low Back Pain?
To correctly answer this question we must always consider all the options.
Firstly the short answer is no, not if that is all you do.
However, is it useful as a corrective strategy in combination with other exercises?
Absolutely!
Now just to confuse you this is not always the case. It just depends on the person and how it is used.
We must also consider how you walk and what type of back pain you have.
In some cases it may be walking itself that is causing your lower back pain. The pain triggers for those who suffer from a bulging disc versus those with SIJ pain or stenosis back pain are completely different.
A person with bulging disc might experience back pain after sitting in front of a computer for a short period of time and going for a 30-minute walk gives great relief and helps to settle the pain down. It does not get rid of it entirely but it makes a big difference in being able to move more effectively therefor making the strength and stability corrections more likely to succeed.
However with SIJ dysfunction, stenosis, or arthritic pain, it’s the opposite.
Sitting for half an hour may provide relief, while walking for 15 minutes exacerbates the pain.
This is another great reason why you should never self diagnose.
How You Walk Is Very Important
Whenever I am in doubt with helping a person with back pain I refer to the books and research by Dr. Stuart McGill’s.
Two years ago I did a training course with him and it was fantastic to learn from the best.
In his latest book the “Back Mechanic” he compares the American way of walking vs. the way the Russians walk.
He notes that Americans tend to have a head down approach to walking as opposed to the Russians who had a chest out and stand tall approach. The Americans tend to lead with their head placing them in a constant falling forward position that has potential to place significant load on the lower back. Over time, a bad habit of this poor “spinal stacking” can lead to serious issues.
The Russians on the other hand tend to have a taller more stacked approach to their gait cycle. This helps with proper “spinal stacking” and enable them to use the core more effectively stabilize the pelvis and spine.
The second thing to look at is walking speed.
Slow walking puts more of a static load on the spine when compared to brisk walking.
“Walking too slowly actually statically loads the spine. The muscles add crushing forces to the spine. Add on top of that walking slowly with poor posture while walking will only worsen the pain.” – (McGill, Back Mechanic pg 114).
Another huge factor I have found to be a consistent problem over the years with people suffering with back pain or hip pain is a lack of the arm swing during walking.
The arm swing is very important to hip function and you can see a good explanation of this in the video below.
In Dr McGill’s book he provides 5 ways to build a pain free walking posture.
These are listed below for you.
1.Maintain an upright posture which embraces a pain free stance. This can be achieved by proper “stacking” of your spine over your hips. Adjusting the tilt of your hips either forward or back should give you a sweet spot you can resort back to if you feel you posture gets out of line. Your chest should be high and your head and neck should be straight over your shoulders and not leaning forward.
2.Gently engage your abdominal muscles without gripping excessively. DO NOT hold your abdominal muscles stiff like you would with a plank or your risk ruining the movement.
3.Start in one spot doing “marching steps”. With this you’re establishing a strong walking movement with your knees coming up slightly higher than they would if you were walking normal.
4.Start walking with your arms swinging at the shoulders not just the elbows.
5.Progress with larger and faster steps until you can maintain a pace that looks like you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry. You still want to maintain good posture and control. Controlled yet aggressive.
Walking On Its Own Is Not Enough To Treat Low Back Pain
While walking is undoubtedly very useful, it WILL NOT be enough to treat back pain if that is all you do.
The effectiveness of this all depends on the person and how it is used in combination with other treatments and exercises.
You will need to have exercises that strengthen the core, the glutes and improve mobility of the hips and even the thoracic spine. Not to mention the fact that you may need to spend considerable time learning how to move more efficiently with bending, squats, rotation, and even single leg stance. These are all common weaknesses of all types of back pain but the specific exercises will vary from person to person.
Lastly, as mentioned earlier you must take into account how you walk and what type of back pain you have. In some cases it may be walking itself that is causing your lower back pain which would be consistent with hip weaknesses and problems like lateral pelvic tilt.
You cannot have a one size fits all approach.
For the sake of this article going another 10,000 words I will not go into detail about those exercises as my main point was to explain how valuable walking is.
Online Program You Can Instantly Download
Before jumping straight into a corrective program make sure you have seen a qualified Health professional for an accurate diagnosis and assessment of your condition. I cannot stress this enough as self diagnosing can potentially lead to more problems. We often refer out to Doctors, Chiropractors, and Physiotherapists before implementing our program to know exactly what we are dealing with.
Being certain on where to start is crucial to the success of the program.
If you have seen a health professional and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this.
As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created a detailed step by step program called Back Pain Secrets that includes a 85 page Ebook and 90 minute video with exercises, stretches, mobilizations and in an easy to follow format. This can be done at home or in the gym and we cover everything about your condition in great detail from eliminating the cause to best strength exercises, even nutrition to speed up the healing process!
Click here or on the image below to get a copy.
Summary
This article shows you there is so much more to walking than you realize.
This should also provide you with a lot of confidence to implement walking into your daily routine as often as you can if you currently have back pain. As I said earlier I like to go for 3 walks each day, sometimes I might substitute a walk for a run or cycle but I will aim to get outside at least 3 times.
The walks do not have to be long, but they do need to be fast.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
•Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes – By Shirley Sahrman
•Low Back Disorders – by Stuart McGill
•Back Pain Mechanic – by Stuart McGill
•Movement – by Gray Cook
•Motor Learning and Performance – By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
•Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance – By Vladimir Janda
•Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course – By Paul Chek
•Scientific Back Training – By Paul Chek