Why I'm Changing My Walking Mechanics
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Today I want to talk about one of the very specific parts of the mechanics of walking. It's important actually. Hi, I'm Dave. Welcome to Walking Is Fitness, a daily 10-minute podcast designed to provide you with a little added motivation to get out the door, take the walk, and more importantly, to keep going to build a life-changing walking habit. Today's 10-minute walk starts right after this. Today I want to talk about the mechanics of walking, actually a very specific component of the mechanics of walking, and I'm doing this for a personal reason which I'll get to near the end. So here's the question the question on the table. Do you walk with your hands in your pockets? Or out of your pockets. Maybe you've never thought about it.
Maybe you never walk with your hands in your pockets. Maybe you alternate between hands in, hands out. Maybe it's weather related. When it is cold, I very much walk with my hands in my pockets because I have learned that having my hands in my pockets near my legs keeps my hands warmer. Than if I were wearing gloves. So through most of the winter I tend to walk with my hands in my pockets when I'm outside. And then as winter turned to spring and the weather warmed up, I realized I'm still walking with my hands in my pockets. And then there was something very specific that happened that caused me to go, hmm, maybe I should reconsider this. So there are some important benefits, reasons why we should walk, why I should walk with my hands.
hands out of my pockets as opposed to in my pockets. Number one, having your hands free provides a level of protection should you trip and fall. It's not perfect protection. I'm aware of people who have broken bones in their arms, wrists, hands, because they fell and they used their arm, their hands to break the fall and broke a bone. in the process. But for my money, and I'm not a doctor, I would rather have my hand, my arm take the brunt of the fall than my head. Number two, which is sort of related to that in this This actually might be number one because this can prevent you from even falling, and that is if somehow your walking gait gets interrupted, you hit a sidewalk that's uneven, uh something that's on the path, on the walkway, and your balance for whatever reason is thrown off, having your arms free can help correct the balance.
And this is one of those things that happens I think without us really even thinking about it. You know, we get thrown off balance for whatever reason and we use our free hand arms to correct the balance, uh, which keeps us from falling. So big reason to keep your hands out of your pockets as you're walking. Number three, and this could go either way, and that is that while you're walking, as your arms are swinging, It actually is reducing the energy consumption of walking by they've got numbers for this, eight to thirteen percent. So your arm's swinging. Out of your pockets. provides momentum and actually creates some energy and so you're not using as much energy to walk. Now I said this could go one of two ways.
If you're walking to lose weight Maybe, maybe you want to burn more calories and you want to consume more energy in walking. I'm not sure that having your hands in your pockets is really the best way to do that, but one could make the case of, you know what, I'd actually like to burn more energy, so I'm going to keep my hands in my pockets. Number four. When you restrict your restrict your arm movement and your hands are in your pockets You are Potentially decreasing and maybe even significantly decreasing The walking speed and stride length. So put differently, when our hands are free and swinging, our stride length is is longer and our pace is faster, which can also burn more calories. So there is that.
Number five, this is kind of important. Hands in pockets as you're walking. It actually encourages a slouched posture. So you're walking with hunched shoulders. and your head is tilted down and like me if you're using walking as a way to actually help your posture, hands in the pockets, not good.
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