It's a Walk-Off

Among the things I'm working on with my therapists is becoming more aware of the subtler aspects of what they call "body mechanics." Usually a day or two after one of these sessions I start to notice how a particular movement will influence some aspect of my walking. Today, while working out at the therapy center's gym, I experienced this yet again.

The idea that my therapist, Lori, had planted in my mind was that by engaging my shoulders in my stride I could distribute the natural movement of my spine to include the area above the fused vertebra instead of involving only the area below that. At the time she introduced this idea, I have to admit, it didn't seem like it would make that much of a difference.

Today, though, I was walking on the treadmill at the gym and as I was approaching my cruising speed (about 1.8 mph) I started getting some very familiar jabs of pain in my back. I thought about how I might be working the muscles of the lower back more than necessary and tried involving my shoulders more. It stopped the pain like throwing a switch.

I stopped using my shoulders and the pain returned instantly. Amazing. There are only two problems with this approach, though. One is: it takes a lot of concentration to get the movement just right. The other is: if I'm not very careful I can start walking like Derek Zoolander (male model).

Comments

Gina said…
sueDon't you mean, "Walk like Derek Zoolander AGAIN"?!?!? I seen you strut your stuff on the dirty stages of Baltimore, boy!

:)

Ginasue
Gina said…
hmmm. . .sorry for the strange beginning to my previous post. It appears that my middle name wants to go wandering everywhere today, even to the beginning of my comments! So "sue" me!
Anonymous said…
so....if you have to be careful about walking like Derek Zoolander, does that meant that if you don't pay attention, you won't be able to turn left when you walk?
Anonymous said…
hey- that Derek guy is so Lame when it comes to struting his stuff. he always thinks its a total turn on to women, and he was not able to understand when I had to put a restraining order on him.

He just would NOT stop bothering me, always going on and on about his hair and his face and his special walk. The only think I did like about him was the shoulder action, so go ahead and walk like a model, boy!

annalisa
Anonymous said…
...but can you take your underwear off WITH your clothes on all in one fluid motion?? That's gonna take more than a little therapy. That takes years of practice, my friend...so before you go throwing a name like Derek Zoolander around and comparing yourself to him, think about it first. Geez.

dewdrop
Anonymous said…
It wasn't Derek Zoolander (male model) who could do that underwear trick. In fact, that's how he lost the walk-off.
Anonymous said…
And once you conquer the walk off, we'll have to see you master the look of Blue Steel--

Work it baby, work it...
Work it baby, work it...

Cheers Robb-- Anna and the kids+
Anonymous said…
Remember the 1980's and the entire fashion craze with the big shoulder pads? Talk about shoulder action!

Annalisa

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