Dear community!
I have had problems with Glidewalking since I started the Gokhale-Method. The problems have disappeared and/or changed over time, as the rest of my posture and my therefore my technique changed. But one problem seems to stick, since the very beginning of my practice:
When I walk I get problems with my left knee. After a few steps I start to experience some discomfort in the left knee, like something is a bit off, but if I continue to walk like that I end up with pain in the knee. (Obviously. But my over-ambitious me sometimes needs this pain in order to understand that I am definitely going in the wrong direction) I think it is really weird, because my gait on the right side feels very nice (and it fits several criteria of a good gait).
Since the beginning of my practice I have been desperately searching for the cause (sometimes more desperate, sometimes less) and I think I stumbled into something lately:
After I push myself forward with the right foot and my left foot is in the relaxed swinging phase it seems to fail to assume the right degree of outward rotation when landing. The angle is definitely bigger than the advised 10-15 degrees in the book. This does not happen with the right foot. Then, after the weight shifts onto the left foot, it feels like the arch is collapsing and I propel myself forward by using the inner side of the foot sole more than the rest of it (which is bad in my understanding of the method).
I can conciously try putting my foot down with a smaller degree of outward rotation and indeed it seems to help with the knee problems! Not only that but I also start to feel the glutes working better (which is weird because I thought that they work better the more outwardly rotated the foot/hip is). The only issue I still have is that walking gets really exhausting, as I have to concentrate on placing my foot right. Exhausting mentally and also physically as the swinging phase is not totally relaxed anymore - the walking feels a little bit stiffer.
In the book I could not find any tips on how to deal with too much outward rotation. I think that it might be some muscle in the hip area, which is too lax and therefore allows my foot to drift outwards more than it should. But what do you think? Do you have any tips on how to improve there? Maybe a similar problem has occured to any of you guys and I would be very happy if you could share your experience.
Thank you so much in advance.
Kind regards,
Ramil
3 years 5 months ago
10/13/2016 - 5:07pm
I have the same problem! I've also noticed I tighten my knee before landing and I need to relax above my hip. I'd like some solutions too. I stand and roll the left for inward, but when walking I roll outward (supination). I have incorporated tall standing practice to squat and relax my knee and pelvic joint because I lock them on the left. I suspect like you too lax ab muscle engagement on my left side. From all this, I see varicose veins on mainly the left leg too.
Maybe someone can share their insights!