On my way to the supermarket,
a thought suddenly crossed my mind while walking.
How many people actually walk by pushing against the ground?
For me,
it feels less like “kicking”
and more like pressing the earth away
through the soles of the feet.
According to textbooks,
this way of walking is supposed to be the most efficient
and the least stressful on the body.
But honestly?
To me,
this style of walking feels much harder.
It uses the soles of the feet
and the calves intensely.
So intensely that it makes me realize:
Ah…
human beings were probably designed
to have incredibly active feet and calves.
When I walk this way,
everything above the knees suddenly feels light.
My upper body almost feels effortless,
as though it only needs to quietly exist there.
Meanwhile,
my feet and calves are truly working.
It’ll probably take time
before this becomes unconscious and natural for me.
The moment I stop paying attention,
I slip right back into my old walking pattern.
And my usual walking style is something like this:
The feet merely touch the floor.
The knees absorb the weight.
That’s probably why
my lower back gets tired after walking for long periods.
When I pay close attention,
I can actually feel the impact traveling upward into my spine
every time my body weight lands.
My hips barely move, either.
My legs swing forward,
but they don’t truly extend behind me.
And honestly,
in the short term,
this kind of walking almost feels like
the ultimate energy-saving strategy.
But many of the people I worked with in rehabilitation
seemed to be living with the consequences
of exactly this kind of movement.
Lower back pain.
Knee pain.
Neck pain.
And sometimes I imagine the body like a team.
If every member fulfills its role properly
and moves in harmony,
the burden on each individual becomes smaller.
That’s what creates endurance.
But maybe many of us move through life
with only one part working desperately.
Not because the other parts are lazy—
but because we never learned
how to use everyone’s strengths together.
The body probably could have shared the load.
But by the time we realize it,
one area has already reached its limit.
I sometimes wonder
if that’s what’s happening inside us.
Anyway—
what I really want to say is simple.
Try pulling your leg properly behind you from the hip,
and push the ground away with the sole of your foot as you walk.
Naturally,
your stride becomes larger.
Your speed increases.
And you begin to feel muscles working
that you normally never use.
Your feet and calves will probably get very tired.
But maybe that fatigue
is proof that you’ve been underusing
some of the body’s strongest muscles all this time.
So from now on,
I want to let my feet and calves
finally do the work they were meant to do.