Walking
Thursday, 04 February 2010
Recently, we have been working a lot on the Total Gym to work/activate the muscles above and below knees, as well as everything else in the legs. This is having a big effect, in that the knees are working better (locking) and they are more solid when I am stood up and walking.
This clip shows a new change: before, in order to walk, I have been lifting the hip, kicking the leg forward and then trying to place it so that I can lock the knee and put weight on it. This has had an unnatural appearance as the leg stays lifted (held by the hip) for too long and the foot wavers before placing down, ball or sole first.
Now, we are trying to put the heel down first and immediately (naturally) as part of the step. I have only been able to start doing this with the knee being more solid. It’s amazing the effect that striking the heel down first has: I feel it as a reaction going up to my knee and my pelvis, like an instruction telling the different parts to be solid and take the weight.
I have condensed an hour of walking here (after an hour on the Total Gym) into 7:29minutes, to keep viewing bearable! But what is more interesting in this clip is you see more of the instruction as Hratch is concentrating on instructing and not videoing me. You see me getting wrong and getting it right.
I’m still wearing the below-knee splints, like before. The harness around my waist was for the ceiling hoist, but I ended up not going on the hoist as walking that direction meant I could walk further before turning. Ignore it!
While I was doing this there was a faint memory/feeling of something familiar (i.e. walking a little more as one should). Seen from behind you can see I’m still having to lift the hips a bit to help the leg, but the kick forward is under tension and done from my leg. It is all about tension and reaction (control) from the muscles, and this is what the Total Gym continues to do for me.