WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
How can you turn something you do every day into a holistic workout? Rosie Green takes a feet first approach…
Rosie Green makes her daily steps work harder
I’m guessing you learnt to walk somewhere between 9 and 18 months (although my husband was toddling at sub six if my MIL is to be believed). And then that’s it. One foot in front of the other as you plod through life from pre-school to Saga cruise. But, aged 43 and two-thirds, I’m learning to walk again. Correction. I am ‘rewilding’ my walk. Say what? Rewilding is the theory of Tony Riddle. A charismatic, man-bunned, flame-bearded, eloquent guy who signs off emails ‘with gratitude’ and calls himself a natural life stylist. He is on a mission to reconnect us with nature and our natural selves. He wants us to think about how we would have moved and behaved way before the advent of the urban jungle, chairs and smart phones etcetera. He says by ‘honouring’ our cave dwelling hunter-gatherer selves in our everyday life, we can reap enormous benefits for our wellbeing. His tag line is: ‘ancestral health is modern day wealth’.
Tony rewilds many things (sleep and digestion among them), but today we’re rewilding my walk. Tony promises this will result in fewer injuries and aches, more calories burnt and more muscle definition.
Oh, and a pert bum. Where do I sign?
So what are Tony’s credentials beside famous fans (think Jasmine Hemsley) and an ability to look good in a pair of Daniel Craig swim trunks on Instagram? A bit of background: he was a boisterous kid who went into the army, then became a personal trainer, then a Pilates instructor, all while soaking up influences from people as diverse as natural movement advocate Erwan Le Corre and sports scientist Dr Nicholas Romanov.
This, combined with his dealings with clients who repeatedly reported the same injuries and problems, often with hips, ankles, shoulders and the back, propelled him to create programmes that strengthen and optimise the body.
‘How we move is innate, but has been domesticated out.’ says Tony. ‘All the hardwiring is there to walk properly, but we just need to upload some new software.’ He is all about form. ‘You might think, “I am going to walk 10,000 steps a day to get really fit,” but if you’re not honouring your physiology, you’re not going to get the best results.’
His one-to-one £300 sessions are harder to nail down than a bit of modesty from Trump, so here’s some simple switch-ups to maximise your walk.
Take short steps
You think you’re being industrious and virtuous if you’re taking long strides and covering lots of ground, right? Not according to Tony, who advocates ‘short steps and keeping your feet under your body.’ It’s physiologically better and burns more calories. ‘Every time your foot touches the ground, you have to fuel that,’ says Tony. What about Nordic walking? He’s dismissive. ‘In nature, you wouldn’t have used sticks!’
Keep the correct posture
Tony says, ‘If you keep the correct posture, you’ll be stronger and leaner because you’ll be burning more calories and working muscles trying to maintain shape. Keep the sternum and pubic bone in a straight line with your head up, your chest up and your feet underneath. When your segments are in alignment, you get a great core work out. Upright is how nature intended us to walk.’
Think about your feet
Rewilding your walk really starts with rewilding your feet. Tony is passionate about the foot’s importance. He says, ‘Feet contain a quarter of all of the bones in the human body, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments.’ He believes ‘healthy feet provide really strong foundations for all movement.’ His own feet have a big gap between the first and second toe, and he believes this is the shape we should aim for. ‘For a stable structure, you need really strong foundations – it’s the same with the body.’
Go wide
If you think trainers are the best shoes for your feet, Tony reckons you’re wrong. He says, ‘Regular trainers have a “narrow toe box”. The foot is forced in. You want shoes that allow the feet to widen and provide a stable foundation for your body. If the foot is compromised, it might grow a bunion, and there’s nothing sexy about bunions. Plus you might develop hard skin in places.’ He encourages us to break out of the ‘narrow is best’ social norm and realise cramming feet into narrow shoes is biologically extreme.
A big advocate of going barefoot, he says if the foot is compromised, it can affect your ankle, then your knee, then hip joints, adding, ‘You could get degenerative hips and lazy glutes.’
Of high heels, he is accepting that you’re not going to go cold turkey, but suggests doing the five-two. ‘Say you wear high heels on a Friday night or a Saturday night, go barefoot or in barefoot trainers the rest of the time. It’s what your feet are in 80% of the time that will make the difference.’
Hold your head up
For your body to be in an optimal walking position, you need to hold your head up straight. ‘Your head is very heavy,’ says Tony. ‘It weighs 6-6.5kgs.’ He adds that if you hold it upright, it’s less stressful on the body than if it drops forward. ‘Imagine holding a bar over your head, easier if it’s straight above you, much harder if you’re holding it at a forward angle. Plus, the moment your head drops ahead of you, like when you’re looking at your phone, you put your foot out further ahead and take longer strides.’ (This is bad – see earlier point). Then you make odd, unnatural angles with your hips.’
Buy thin soles
all that feedback so the body can understand its role and respond. We can’t go around consciously thinking this is uneven or sharp, because it’s happening too quickly, so we need to process that instinctively. How can we do that if our senses are being dulled?’ Where do you get thin-soled trainers I hear you ask? Try Vivo Barefoot, New Balance Minimus or Merrell Barefoot.
Practise toe-ga
Tony is all about the big toe. He says, ‘It’s a key player in how we move and how we lever off.’ He advocates daily toe-ga (toe yoga), showing me four exercises. The first, placing the weight on one foot and then bending the big toe of the other foot under while the rest of the toes face forward. Another exercise is keeping the front toe going forward while bending the rest of the toes under the foot (your foot will roll out). Keeping the big toe flat on the ground while lifting the other toes up is another and, lastly, trying to balance on a pole with the big toe on one side and the other toes falling on the other side. Tony believes great posture comes from the big toe and that you’ll garner many advantages if you respect its role – even a perkier bottom. ‘The bottom has an amazing relationship with the big toe!’ he laughs.
How wild will I go?
And after weeks of practicing my newly rewilded walk (which, thanks to the straight posture and shorter steps, ironically looks more elegant), my body is feeling the benefit. My back aches less, I feel less hunched. I’m not sure I’ll keep up the toe-ga, but because I don’t want bunions and I don’t want to walk like Theresa May, I’ll definitely keep my segments aligned, reconsider my trainer choice and keep my head held high.
I went wild. And I liked it.