Be careful of these 5 walking postures, there may be something wrong with your body

Reviewer: Zhang Jianzhong, Chief Physician, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University

Everyone walks differently. Some people walk with a dashing and vigorous manner, while others walk crookedly, looking like a "penguin".

If you think this is just a matter of aesthetics, you are wrong. Walking posture is actually a mirror that reflects our physical health.

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Beware of these 5 abnormal walking postures

Stand upright, look forward, swing your arms naturally, and walk steadily...

In our opinion, this kind of walking action is very common. However, in order for a person to complete it, the nervous system, muscles and bones, cardiovascular system, and respiratory system of the body need to work together perfectly.

Therefore, when there is a problem with a part of our body, we cannot walk normally. Especially when the following 5 abnormal walking postures appear, it is the body telling us that there is a problem with our health.

1. Don’t swing your arms when you walk

When we walk normally, we move forward and twist our waist, causing our arms to swing naturally. If your arms cannot swing naturally when you walk, there may be something wrong with other parts of your body.

2. Land on the sole of your foot first

When a normal person walks, the heel usually touches the ground first. However, if a person walks with the sole of the foot hitting the ground first, it may be that the anterior muscles of the foot are weak, resulting in the inability to move the instep of the foot normally when walking.

There are many causes of this condition, mainly cerebral palsy and hemiplegia caused by stroke. Patients with this condition will experience foot drop due to muscle weakness, and the sole of the foot will land on the ground first when walking.

Severe lumbar disc herniation can also cause the sole of the foot to land first, because the nerves are compressed and the dorsalis muscles of the foot become weak, resulting in foot drop.

3. Walking with small steps

Some people think that walking with small steps is graceful, but not being able to take big steps is also a disease.

A strong person can walk with big strides and a breeze, but the legs and feet of the elderly and frail are not so flexible. Some diseases can also cause small strides, such as osteoarthritis or knee bone degeneration and other senile degenerative diseases, which can cause small strides in these patients.

4. Walking on tiptoes

This condition may be caused by a neurological disorder, such as walking on tiptoes when there is damage to the spine or brain. People with cavus may experience pain and joint stiffness when walking.

Generally speaking, if you like to walk on tiptoes and feel pain, you should seek medical treatment promptly. The earlier the diagnosis and treatment, the better.

In addition, young children who are just learning to walk may also walk on tiptoe. Generally speaking, there is no need to worry too much, but if this continues, parents need to take their children to the hospital for examination.

5. Walking in circles

People of this type will stretch one leg outward from the body, and then walk in a clockwise direction like drawing a circle with a compass. This is likely caused by cerebral embolism or stroke.

The above five abnormal walking postures all reflect our physical health problems. So what aspects should we pay attention to in daily life in order to detect problems early and reduce damage to the body?

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How to keep healthy in daily life

1. Pay attention to your walking posture and maintain a good posture

In daily life, we should pay attention to our walking posture and maintain a good posture.

Generally speaking, a good walking posture should be to look straight ahead, hold your head high and chest out, lean your center of gravity slightly forward, stretch your arms out and relax, let your arms swing naturally, and keep your feet even and at a suitable speed.

2. Exercise appropriately and pay attention to warm-up

Regular exercise, such as walking, jogging, Tai Chi, mountain climbing, etc., can enhance the body's immunity, promote blood circulation, accelerate the body's metabolism, and is beneficial to physical and mental health.

It should be noted that you should warm up before exercise, especially the joints, to avoid injuries caused by uncoordinated movements and unopened joints.

3. Balanced nutrition and calcium supplementation

In daily diet, we should pay attention to balanced nutrition, control fat intake, and eat more foods rich in protein, iron and vitamins, such as meat, eggs, milk, fresh vegetables and fruits, etc. The elderly in particular should pay more attention to calcium supplementation to prevent health problems such as osteoporosis caused by calcium deficiency.

4. Have regular health checks to identify problems

Sometimes, some diseases do not make us feel obvious discomfort, which leads to our inability to detect them in time. Therefore, regular health examinations can be used to detect problems in the body in time, so as to achieve early detection and early treatment, so as to avoid major diseases caused by untimely detection or delay the best time for treatment.

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To sum up, walking posture can reflect some physical health problems. Therefore, once you find that you have the walking problems described above, you must seek medical attention in time to check for the disease and achieve early detection and early treatment.