Tadasana Walk
As many of you already know, I’ve been learning and practicing Yin and Slow Flow yoga at Eb and Flow with Peggy Moore. Peggy and her daughter, Eboni, are the studio owners and they are amazing teachers.
A couple of weekends ago, I was hanging around the studio between classes, as usual picking Peggy’s brain..and she said, “Let’s go for a walk.”
She told me that, although my strength, flexibility and alignment had vastly improved, my gait was still looking like that of a middle-aged, creaky injured person. She instructed me to do the following:
- Stand in Tadasana (trans: Mountain Pose): arms externally rotated, sternum pushing heavenward; navel tucked into the spine, quads active; look to the horizon.
- Keep in mind that walking doesn’t just involve your legs: it starts in your torso. The forward leg is loose and light, and it’s the pushing-off leg, the back leg, that really does the work.
- Stride should be relatively short. If you want to go faster, take quicker steps rather than longer ones.
- Remember to touch down with your heel, roll up your foot and toe off with the big toe.
This was quite an experience! After 20 minutes of walking around Wicker Park, my hip flexors and abdominals were really sore. I’m practicing the Tadansana walk every day, and I fall into it more and more naturally.
The best part is this: the following week I had the opportunity to teach several patients to walk this way. They looked like supermodels!
Please note: you can sit as well as stand in Tadasana. You can drive in Tadasana. Your body starts to work as a beautifully synchronized machine. Try it.