I learned to walk at a young age, but I think I was wrongly taught. All my life (so far) I thought I walked just like all the other women. But a couple of years ago, the family was sitting around and started doing imitations of each other. My SO and both daughters agree that I walk funny.
Apparently I do not walk with the swaying, swishy, swinging movement most typical of ladies. No, I walk like I have wires attached to my pelvic bones, and I am being pulled along like a kids toy. I have found that I cannot do that swing shashay thing unless I really concentrate. So instead of swinging the hips side to side, I swing the pelvis back and forth. (lovely mental image, I know!)
This just came to mind today, and I have not yet been able to observe other women’s walks.
I have funny bizzare twisted bones. This means all the muscle attatchments are in the wrong places relative to other bones. It also means my feet stick out at funny angles, my knees are kinda malformed, and my hips creak.
Despite all this, the only gait abnormalities i’ve noticed are my feet, which protrude sideways at an angle of about 45 degrees from where most people’s feet are, and the tendency for my feet to twist and roll inwards during motion.
I walk rapidly, too. I cannot stand going to the mall for this very reason. It is like being in a human traffic jam. I constantly weave around people, cutting between groups. I need a horn.
I had braces on my legs when I was learning to walk. I wonder if that has anything to do with how I walk. Hmmm…
I’ll chip in a couple bucks towards buying you a horn. The world needs more horny women.
Funny you should ask. As I read your OP, I was thinking, “That sounds like the gait of someone who wears leg braces.” So, my guess would be, yes, it has everything to do with your having worn braces. There is a very distinctive gait people learn when they’re forced to wear leg braces that are too heavy for their leg muscles to handle. They learn to use their back and stomach muscles to help compensate. It can be unlearned, but you may need the help of a physical therapist, if you want to correct it quickly. (Of course, that assumes you care.)
Never had leg braces. I walk funny: I walk on my toes, rather than a heel-toe sort of thing that most people do. So when I walk, I bounce, bobbing up and down as I go.
Also, I hold my pencil with the wrong fingers.
And I put my pants on three legs at a time.
Okay, maybe not the last one, but the first two, for sure.
I’m told that I had a ‘bone spur’ when I was young in my ankles so I kind of bounce when I walk. Imagin that I have tacks in the heels of my shoes so I tend to keep most of my weight on my toes.
That and my right foot goes outward at about a 60 degree angle.
Wow - and here I thought that I was the only one who did that. Everyone says that I walk on my toes and bounce. I don’t know exactly why I walk this way - I’ve heard something about the tendons my calves being short but I’m not sure if that is a cause or an effect.
I can walk more normally if I really concentrate on it (and I do get a burning in my calves after awhile) but since it requires so much effort to walk this way I generally don’t bother.
Hrm - I also hold a pen the wrong way - instead of having the tips of my thumb and index finger on the pen shaft I wrap my thumb around the pen and over the tip of my index finger. Is there some sort of connection here?
I see quite afew, not alot, but quite a few, people do this. And they always seem to be young males. I do not think I have ever seen an older man walk this way. Is it something you will eventually grow out of, I wonder?
And Gut, my DH walks that way. He is very handy at the aforementioned malls as people tend to scatter before him. I have seen people tripping over themselves trying to get out of his way.
I’m pigeon-toed, so my feet point inward a little. It’s a LOT less pronounced than it was when I was little, so now you really have to look for it to tell that I am.
But due to my funny bone configuration, I can bend my legs in all kinds of unimaginable ways that normal people can’t.
Does it count if I’ve been told I run funny? Too many times to not take into consideration, at least. The weird part is, I don’t know what it is that I do. Something about the way I hold my arms as I run. They’re not thrust out like I’m doing the Funky Chicken and I don’t hold them ramrod straight at my sides, so where am I supposed to put them?
I walk funny and fast. My right leg is a bit corkscrewed so that the knee points off to the left instead of straight ahead, and my achilles tendons are short. So I bounce and I walk knock-kneed. And I walk at slightly over 4 mph.
Lillyan:
Yep. Like stoned cattle. And they step in front of you like they can’t see you coming, and won’t get out of your way.
