How to Walk Properly

How to Walk Properly
By Grant Frost · Physiotherapist • Last clinically reviewed: 06 April 2026

Key insights: 60-second read

  • How you walk naturally may not be optimal - modern habits like sitting and heeled footwear create hidden compensations.
  • Walking is controlled falling - lean forward, lift your heel toward your bottom, and land under your body rather than heel striking out in front.
  • Start tall with feet pointing straight ahead - if this feels awkward, it may indicate ankle or hip restrictions that need attention.
  • Common compensations include turned-out feet and excessive heel striking - these often signal underlying mobility issues.
  • Retraining your walking pattern takes conscious practice - it may feel unnatural at first, especially if your body has been compensating for years.

If you have ever been told to "just walk normally" while dealing with persistent foot, shin, knee or hip pain, you might have walked away feeling more confused than before. You are not alone. As a physiotherapist in Port Macquarie, I hear this frequently: "But I am walking the way I have always walked."

That statement makes complete sense. And yet, the way you walk without thinking about it may not be the most efficient or kindest way to load your joints and tissues. This is not about blaming you or your body. It is about understanding how modern life quietly changes the way we move.

"Just because the way you walk without thinking about it is the way you walk without thinking about it doesn't guarantee that it’s the most effective way to move. It’s a reflection of how your body is moving at the moment."

On this page

Why your natural walk may not be optimal Hidden impact of sitting and footwear How to walk properly: step by step Common compensations and what they mean Retraining your walking pattern Video transcript with timestamps Frequently asked questions

Why your natural walking pattern may not be optimal

In theory, the way your body moves without conscious thought should be the most efficient expression of human movement. That is what evolution and decades of lived experience would suggest. However, clinical experience suggests something slightly different for many people.

The modern world has introduced variables that our bodies did not evolve to handle in the same way. Two of the biggest contributors are prolonged sitting and heeled footwear. Neither is inherently "bad", but both can create hidden restrictions that your body then has to work around.

How sitting and footwear quietly change your walking pattern

When you sit for long periods, your hips remain in a position of flexion (roughly 90 degrees). Over time, the tissues around your hips (especially the front) can adapt to this shortened position, making full hip extension during walking more difficult. Similarly, slouching through your spine while sitting can introduce specific dysfunction into your lower back and your legs.

Heeled shoes, even modest ones, hold your ankle in a slightly plantarflexed position. This makes it harder to access our full range of ankle dorsiflexion (bending your shin toward your foot). The ankle joint, calf muscles and Achilles tendon can gradually adapt to this shape, becoming tighter and less compliant.

Clinical insight

When you take these restrictions into walking, your body does the best it can. It’s always looking to find the path of least resistance. That path often involves turning the feet outward, reducing step length, or altering how your foot lands. These compensations may feel “natural” because they have become your new normal. But they may be loading your joints and soft tissues less efficiently than an unrestricted pattern would.

How to walk properly: a step-by-step guide

The following approach is based on biomechanical principles of efficiency. It may feel unfamiliar at first, especially if you have been compensating for restrictions for years. That is expected, not a sign that you are doing it incorrectly.

1. Start tall with your feet straight

Before you take a single step, stand as tall as you comfortably can. Your shoulders should be back but not forced. Gently engage your trunk muscles, not in a rigid way but enough to feel supported. Most importantly, check the direction your feet are pointing. Ideally, they point straight ahead, not turned out.

If having your feet straight feels tight or awkward, that is valuable information. It may suggest restriction in your ankles, the front of your hips, or both.

2. Think of walking as controlled falling

Rather than actively pushing off with your back leg, allow your whole body to lean forward slightly from the ankles, not the hips. Keep your torso and pelvis aligned. As you lean, you should feel your heels begin to lift off the ground. Gravity now helps initiate forward movement.

A useful drill: stand facing a wall, slightly more than arm's length away. Place your hands on the wall and practise leaning forward as one unit. Feel your heels come up, then simply lift one heel toward your bottom and place your foot back down.

"When we're thinking of initiating our first step, this is when we start to deviate from what a lot of people tend to feel they're doing naturally. For a lot of people, taking that first step requires you to lift your leg up and almost push your heel off. But that's not the most efficient way to do things."

3. Lift your heel toward your bottom, do not push off

This is one of the most common differences between an efficient walking pattern and a less efficient one. Instead of pushing off forcefully from your back toes, focus on lifting your heel directly up toward your glutes. This reduces unnecessary work from your calf muscles and encourages a more fluid transfer of weight.

4. Land under your body, not out in front

Heel striking out in front of you acts as a brake. Each time you reach forward and land on your heel well ahead of your centre of mass, you create a deceleration force. Over thousands of steps, that adds up. Instead, aim to land closer to the middle of your foot, with your foot landing underneath or very close to underneath your body.

From the side, this looks subtle. But the difference in joint loading can be significant, particularly for the knees, shins and lower back.

Common compensations and what they may indicate

  • Walking with feet turned out – This often suggests limited ankle dorsiflexion or restricted hip extension. Your body turns the foot out to "unlock" movement around a restriction.
  • Feeling unstable when leaning forward – May indicate reduced core or trunk control, or a balance system that has adapted to a more passive, upright posture.
  • Difficulty lifting your heel toward your bottom – Could relate to rectus femoris (front thigh) tightness or reduced hip flexor length.
  • Persistent heel striking despite trying to change – Sometimes linked to reduced ankle mobility or a habitual motor pattern that requires conscious retraining over time.

Retraining your walking pattern takes time

If you have been walking a certain way for years or decades, your brain has learned that pattern deeply. Changing it requires repetition, attention and often addressing the underlying restrictions that made the old pattern necessary in the first place. This is why simply being told to "walk properly" rarely works. You may need to free up mobility in your hips, ankles or spine first, then practise the new motor pattern consistently.

In clinical practice, we often combine targeted mobility exercises with walking retraining. For some people, small changes like reducing heel height in everyday shoes or taking more frequent breaks from sitting can also make a meaningful difference.

Video transcript with timestamps (click to jump)

Good day and welcome back to the channel. So, in today's video, I want to talk to you about how to walk properly.
More specifically, I want to touch on some things that you may not realise that you are or are not doing that could genuinely impact the efficiency and the optimisation of your walking mechanics.
So much so that some of these factors could be the hidden underlying cause or contributing factor to some of your lower leg aches and pains.
So, I'm fully aware that when telling people how to walk properly, I do run the risk of potentially offending or at least getting under the skin of certain people.
They've told me before. Currently, the YouTube short with the most views on my channel is the short entitled How to Walk Properly.
I can certainly appreciate how some of what I'm about to go through in this video may sound a little different to what you currently think or feel is correct. But that's why I want to make sure that I explain myself really thoroughly.
Perhaps the biggest concept is the idea that what you do naturally and normally at the moment without thinking about it in terms of walking doesn't necessarily guarantee that that is optimal or best for you.
Clinically, perhaps the biggest misconception about how to walk properly is that how you walk without thinking about it or how you walk naturally is the most optimal way to walk. And in theory, that should absolutely be true.
Our body should just do the most optimal thing all the time if that's what it's supposed to be doing. But what I would argue based on what I find clinically is that the majority of people just aren't optimal these days, thanks in no small way to the modern world that we live in.
Things like heeled shoes and all the sitting we tend to do can very covertly and slowly over time start to rob us of basic function that we then take into walking.
In terms of sitting, the reason why sitting can be one of the things that compromises our ability to walk normally is because the amount of time that we tend to spend in this kind of 90 degree hip position because we're not necessarily expressing full hip flexion or full hip extension, it can be very easy for our hips and the tissue around our hips to become tight or restricted to this shape.
When we couple this with a lot of the common footwear that people tend to wear tends to have a little bit of a heel lift at the back, if the shoes that you get around in have a heel at the back, then that is the exact amount of ankle range of motion you don't get access to while you're wearing those shoes.
The first step, the first thing I think everyone needs to think about is how you are before you take your first step, which is to be up tall. A good posture or a good position requires you to be as tall as you feel comfortable with your shoulders comfortably back.
So many people tend to come and see me when they're walking with their feet turned out. Again, this may feel natural and normal to you, especially if you've been doing this for decades, but it isn't optimal. When you have your feet straight and we're moving forwards, everything's more likely to move in a linear plane.
When we're thinking of initiating our first step, for a lot of people, taking that first step requires you to lift your leg up and almost push your heel off. But that's not the most efficient way to do things. I would ask you instead to lean your whole weight forwards until you feel your heels come off the ground. And it's this leaning forwards with the help of gravity that then starts to propel us forwards.
We want to think of you as lifting your heel up towards your bottom as the primary initiating factor. So, we're not pushing off with our back leg. We're almost lifting up our heel towards our bottom and then just planting it down underneath or as close to underneath our base of support as possible.
It's also really important to focus on how you accept that step. Traditionally a lot of people when we walk we often think of striding out in front and that often looks something like heel striking. Stepping out in front of you is actually a handbrake to moving forwards. Instead, what should happen is your foot landing as close to underneath your base of support as possible.
If you feel that it is difficult to keep your feet straight when you're walking, if the front of your hips are tight, what happens is when you extend back behind yourself, if you don't have the range to keep your foot straight, you may be forced to turn your foot out. Same thing happens with a restricted ankle.
Because this is something that you may have been doing for decades, it may not be as simple as freeing up your hip or freeing up your ankle and expecting just to correct how you walk in an instant. You may need to consciously think about these things to retrain your brain and your mechanics for this to then become normal and your new default over time.
Just because the way that you walk without thinking about it is the way that you walk without thinking about it doesn't guarantee that it's the most effective way to move. It just guarantees that that's how your body's moving at the moment. And if you have some form of lower leg dysfunction, comparing how you could move to how you currently move could be a really strong way to figure out what you might be missing.

One key insight

"Just because the way that you walk without thinking about it is the way that you walk without thinking about it doesn't guarantee that it's the most effective way to move. It just guarantees that that's how your body's moving at the moment. And if it's compensating for some basic dysfunction that the modern world has introduced, that could be contributing to your lower leg aches and pains."

Frequently asked questions about walking mechanics

Is heel striking always bad?

Not necessarily. Heel striking exists on a spectrum. A light heel strike with the foot close to your centre of mass is very different from a heavy heel strike with the leg extended far out in front. The issue is more about where your foot lands relative to your body, not whether your heel touches first at all.

Can changing my walking pattern help with shin splints or plantar fasciitis?

It may. Both conditions are influenced by how load is distributed through your lower leg and foot. A walking pattern that involves excessive heel striking, turned-out feet, or inadequate hip extension can increase load on specific tissues. Addressing those mechanics is often one part of a broader management plan.

How long does it take to change a walking pattern?

There is no fixed timeline. Some people notice changes within a few weeks of consistent practice. For others, particularly if underlying mobility restrictions are significant, it may take several months. The most important factor is regular, mindful practice rather than intensity.

Do I need special shoes to walk properly?

Not necessarily. Minimal or zero-drop shoes can make it easier to feel the mechanics described above, but you can practise these principles in most footwear. The bigger consideration is whether your everyday shoes have a significant heel that limits ankle mobility over time.

If you are struggling with lower leg aches, hip discomfort, or just want to move more efficiently, please consider booking an appointment. I would love to help you figure out what hidden restrictions might be affecting your walking pattern and make sure the recommendations are as specific as possible to you and your symptoms.

If you found this guide helpful, please consider watching the full video above and sharing it with someone who might benefit.

- Grant

Living With Persistent Pain?

If your pain has lasted longer than expected, feels disproportionate to injury, or hasn't responded to standard treatment, you may benefit from a more nervous-system-focused approach. Learn more about our physiotherapy services in Port Macquarie.

Want personalised guidance?

If you would like help making sense of your aches, pains, or ongoing symptoms, you can book with Grant either in Port Macquarie or via telehealth.

Book In-Person (Port Macquarie) Book Online Telehealth Consultation
Grant Frost Physiotherapy Online Telehealth Consultation - Book your appointment today

Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes and does not replace individualised physiotherapy assessment. Always consult a qualified health professional for your specific situation.

Related posts

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.