THE LOST ART OF WALKING.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1928, Page 8

THE LOST ART OF WALKING.

FAULTS OF .MEN AND WOMEN.

SURGEON ON THE RIGHT .METHOD.

You can drive a mot'>r-cur and run a Itoat and cfirm*r a motor-cycle. but can von walk'

An anny officer just liuiul* Irom India who has been studying the* use or misuse of feet in the Strand, has written to “The Daily Mail," about the lost art of walking. His emnhatie e.Delusion is that walking, wliieh served the Stone, Hro*.ii/,o and every other age so well, has become a lost art.

A “Daily Mail" reporter was sent to study the walking methods of the multitude for himself, and to get a leading orthopaedic surgeon to illustrate the rigid way and wrong way of walking in words and pictures. He writes ;

On my way to Uarley-st reel, tit a moment when I was unite ignorant as Lo the rigid way of walking. I realised that at least -nine-tenths of the population walk wrongly.

BENT SHOULDERS

Quite three-quarters of them walk with bont shoultlres. Some of the others lonn hackwords and advance the feet (gingerly. Some splay the feet oat at the angle 'beloved by sergeantmajors. Others turn them in. A few walk with them parallel. Many roll their bodies to the left on advancing the left foot and to the right on advancing the right. In some cases the heel meets the ground lir.st ; in others, the toe; in others the whole foot touches ground togeilter .Some swing permanently-bent legs, others pcrmanontly-stilf ones. One of the leading orthopaedic surgeons demonstrated in his consulting room the right and wrong ways of walking, enabling the accompanying pictures to he made. On them, he commented :

“Here yon have a wrong way of walking, the toes turned out tit tin angle its recommended hr military aiitoritios. If you arc flat-footed, of oour.se. you save the arches of the foot in this way. If you are normal. it is as wrong as if you walked with vour toes in.

“Your- legs have got three hinges, which we can call thigh hinge. kn<e hinge and ankle hinge. The are designed to open and close in a plane parallel to the direct i ni in which you arc going, like the hinged pist-m that turns the wheels oi the locomotive. Tf yen twist one hinge as you walk' you also turn your bodv in the direction of the twist, or in other words you roll. Yon hoconi" ungainly.

“Walk with thigh, kneecap and big I - in one line. It is in Ibis wav. after all. that a surgeon sets a broken log.

(tR.U K bit not mask.

“Here yon have the wrong way of setting down the In t. Male with vour toes touching first, bo you notice lmw ‘affected' your walk becomes, [t makes the grace that the mannequin likes, hut it is not the typo of grace that is wedded to ease.

“Nature makes one toe-walk in this way when caution is necessary, when expecting a load to tall Irom ihe head as witness the walk ol sane natives —when reaching out for tin* road from the pavement, when dodging another pedestrian, and even when playing Wind Man’s Bull'. But it is the wrong walk for general walking over good and had ground alike. “Nor should the heel touch first. It is clumsy, tiring, and wrong from every point of view. Whether you wear high -heels or low, all the heel and sole should touch ground together and with the foot bent outwards by the merest shade.

“One should put the weight I Twin! its one walks, of course. And one should walk in a straight line. One should not look down, nor lnuid the hack. The length of stop should depend on the length of leg. a yard being about right for the six-foot man. “I think it is important to straighten. the leg before it touches the ground. At all costs avoid a roll. If anything is moved out of the straight, muscles have to he used to get it back again, and that means fatigue. TIRING AND UGLY. •not “Before thinking out details, set .ourself out to walk with a maximum of grace and a minimum of fatigue. The wrong way of walking is tiring, ugly, and may be bad for you. Graceful, easy walking in a pair of cornfortunate shoes is a delight, and ther° arc many who have never tasted it. Before 1 knew what comprised good walking. T thought that at least ninetenths of the population walk wrongly. Afterwards T realised that this figure should be niuety-niue-himdred-tlis.