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- The Walking Solution
The Walking Solution will help you create innovative programs to engage individuals across the fitness spectrum. Introduce a program for inactive individuals to get moving, or challenge experienced clients with a new cross-training activity.
In The Walking Solution, you will discover the four progressions of walking technique, how to increase intensity, and how to incorporate strength-building exercises to get the most out of every walk. Clear instructions and photos show the dynamic and static stretches that help to ensure safety and improve performance. Case studies describe unique and successful walking programs that you can customize for your own clients. You will also learn the key business strategies that allow you to increase revenue and reach new audiences to expand your clientele. You will also get access to customizable business development resources such as waivers and marketing plans.
Transform lives using the simple and effective strategies in The Walking Solution and help all your clients experience improved mental and physical well-being. Get your clients—and your business—moving today!
Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.
Chapter 1. The Power of Walking
Chapter 2. Made for Walking
Part II. The New Way to Walk
Chapter 3. Intensify the Pace
Chapter 4. Coach Proper Technique
Part III. Walking Workouts
Chapter 5. Design Effective Workouts
Chapter 6. Stretch for Mobility and Performance
Chapter 7. Gain Strength for Power
Part IV. Enhance the Experience
Chapter 8. Ensure Comfort and Safety
Chapter 9. Include All
Part V. The Business of Walking
Chapter 10. Manage Your Classes
Chapter 11. Promote Walking as a Workout
Chapter 12. Coach for Success
Appendix A. Recommended Reading
Appendix B. Health Questionnaires and Waivers
Appendix C. Business Development Resources
Lee Scott, BASc, MA, found a passion and purpose that drew her to the health and fitness industry more than 25 years ago. After teaching a variety of group fitness classes, she developed the WoW Power Walking program in 2002 and the Simple Secrets for a Great Walking Workout DVD-CD in 2006 as a way to engage people in a challenging and sustainable lifelong activity. She has coached thousands of walkers for fitness and marathons, and she has trained fitness professionals to lead walking workout programs of their own.
Scott, an ACE-certified personal trainer, has shared her expertise at IDEA World Fitness and numerous times at American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Summit. She has also worked for several years as a walking expert for a well-regarded specialty program for breast cancer survivors at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
Scott has power walked more than 100 distance events, including a 50K ultramarathon and 32 full marathons. Her engaging presence and considerable knowledge of the latest research in exercise science have made her a popular expert for North American magazines, corporate workshops, fitness conferences, marathon and fitness expos, and television.
Michele Stanten, a walking coach and ACE-certified group fitness instructor, is the author of Walk Your Way to Better Health and Walk Off Weight. She is the creator of the My Walking Coach website and numerous audio and online walking workouts, most recently Prevention magazine’s Walk Stronger video series.
As the former fitness director of Prevention magazine, Stanten created a marathon walking program and coached thousands of readers across the country to walk full and half marathons. She has also created training programs for leading brands and organizations, including Avon and the American Council on Exercise. She has walked many distance events, including a three-day 60-mile charity walk, a full marathon, and many half marathons. She also works with organizers of running events from 5Ks to half marathons to make the events walker friendly.
Stanten has been a member of the Every Body Walk! Collaborative since its inception in 2012 and serves on the coordinating committee. She is a past member of the American Council on Exercise’s board of directors. In addition to coaching clients, she has also presented walking workshops at the National Walking Summit and the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Summit. Michele’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including USA Today, Harvard Health publications, Real Simple, Prevention, Shape, and Weight Watchers. Her many media appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, The Biggest Loser, CNN, and NPR.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.
Protect your business with insurance
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary.
Insure Your Business
As safe as walking can be as an activity, if you are organizing or leading walking programs, insurance is necessary. While it is common to develop positive relationships with clients and be lulled into a sense of complacency that they would never sue you, the reality is that they could. If a client believes they were injured from walking, they could file a lawsuit against you. Even if you require walkers to fill out health questionnaires and sign waivers, these documents will not protect you against litigation. If sued successfully, your personal assets may be at risk of loss, depending on your business tax classification. Even if it's not successful, fighting a lawsuit is expensive unless you have insurance. There are a few types of insurance to investigate.
- Professional liability insurance, also known as malpractice insurance, protects walking coaches from a client's claim that they were injured as a direct result of coaching advice. Suggesting that a client walk 10 hill repeats twice a week may work well for thousands of clients, but one may experience back pain from a workout and take you to court over it. Moreover, if you plan to hold your walking programs under the auspices of a gym, club, workplace, or other organization, they may demand to see proof of your professional liability insurance. Ask your insurer if they provide a certificate of insurance (COI).
- General liability insurance protects you from property damage and personal injury due to accidents that happen while you are leading a walking group, but they are unrelated to your advice. The likelihood of property damage during walking classes is low, especially if programs are held outside. However, personal injury may happen, for example, if someone trips, whether inside or outside.
- Product liability insurance may be a good idea if you use any products, such as elastic resistance bands, during walk circuit classes and this is not covered in your general liability insurance. Product liability insurance protects you against any claims arising from injury related to equipment failure.
- Personal liability insurance protects against claims from a third party who may be adversely affected by an injury to one of your clients from advice that you gave.
- Sexual misconduct liability insurance is a good idea for any person working intimately with others. While you may feel that your own conduct makes this unnecessary, especially in outdoor group settings, it remains an excellent protection in case a client's interpretation of events differs from your own. If you have coaches who lead walking workouts on your behalf, ensure that they are covered, too.
- Disability insurance for yourself as a personal trainer or fitness leader dependent on your walking or fitness program for income. This is important when your monthly bills depend on your coaching revenue and you can no longer coach because you are injured.
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer insurance to personal trainers. Check for discounts through such fitness certification organizations as ACE, NASM, ACSM, and NSCA. Some plans offer monthly payment options; however, you may be able to get a price reduction by paying annually. Before making your final purchase on insurance, check for any exclusions. For example, make sure that if you have a substitute coach who does not have a fitness certification, they are covered in event of an accident. Verify that you are covered in all outdoor environments, including on all outdoor roads, trails, sidewalks, intersections, and parking lots—both public and private spaces. If you train virtually, make sure that you are covered. If you teach a yoga pose in walking class, ensure you are covered for that!
Finally, if anything changes in your walking program or business, check back with your insurance provider. This includes any changes to number of classes, number of participants, location, coaches, and equipment used.
Using hashtags to grow your business
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs.
#Walking
Using hashtags on social media can help to grow your walking business or programs. A hashtag is any combination of words put together without spaces and preceded by the pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize information posted on social media and to make that information discoverable by others. About 75 percent of people on social media use hashtags. Here are 10 essential points to help you use hashtags to your advantage.
- Hashtags are created and managed by users; that means you. Create your own hashtag or use ones that have already been used. On Twitter, hashtags link your tweet to a conversation. On Instagram, they describe content in your post. On Facebook, hashtags work best on an open business account rather than a personal account with security privacy settings.
- Using appropriate hashtags can help you draw followers and interest in your walking business or programs.
- For your hashtags to get traction, your social media accounts must be public; otherwise, only people who are already following you will see them.
- Hashtags can be used on Instagram and Facebook stories by using the hashtag sticker or simply inserting the hashtag into the text.
- Hashtags are most effective when they are specific to the content of your post. For example, #walking as opposed to #niceday, or #intervalwalking versus #health.
- Based on research, the number of hashtags that are most effective varies by account. For Twitter and Facebook, it is one or two hashtags; on Instagram, it is 8 to 10. Hashtags on Instagram can be inserted into the comment section to keep your caption clean.
- Use hashtags that are appropriate to your current audience and potential audience. To tap into the correct audience, consider checking out hashtags of your competitors (such as local fitness businesses) and do searches on social media using hashtags that you think might be relevant, such as #walk, #walking, #speedwalking, #powerwalking
- If you post with a popular hashtag, your content may get missed because there are so many other posts under this hashtag, but it also has the potential to go viral because of the wider audience.
- A hashtag that has few followers may reveal a niche market for you and potential branding opportunity. Experiment creating different hashtags and reviewing the response.
- In addition to creating and using hashtags on your own posts, follow hashtags to stay up to date on trending information.
Short, quick steps are the key to moving faster
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
Progression 2: Short, Quick Steps
Our second progression addresses the position and movement of the lower body.
If you had to guess which one of us—Michele at 5'8" or Lee at 5'6"—is speedier, you'd probably pick Michele. Most people think taller people with longer legs can walk faster (Michele hears this all the time), which is reasonable. But the truth is, the shorter person can be faster than the taller one, and this isn't an anomaly. The gold medalist in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) racewalk at the 2016 Olympics stands at only 5'3" tall and averaged a seven-minute-per-mile pace while walking, beating out many taller competitors.
The key to moving faster isn't bigger steps; it's a quicker step cadence. Progression 2 focuses on getting the feet and legs to move more quickly while minimizing impact.
Take Short Steps
The significant change in this progression is a shortening of the stride in front of the body. This is done by placing the heel of the landing foot just in front of the body, ahead of the COM. This position minimizes the effort required to push the weight of the body over the front foot. The farther out in front of the body the foot is placed, the more effort it takes to bring the opposite foot forward. Walking has been described as a series of forward falls [3]. But when the leg is extended far out in front of the body (figure 4.8) it acts like a brake, decreasing speed and creating a bouncy, choppy stride that increases impact to the joints in the lower body, especially the knee. When the foot instead lands closer to the body (figure 4.9), there is less impact, and it is easier to roll body mass over the front foot and swing the back foot forward to catch the body as it falls forward onto the next step.
Figure 4.8 With the leg farther out in front of the body, it is more work to support and move the COM over the front leg.
Figure 4.9 When the foot lands closer to the body, the COM is more supported, and it takes less effort to move it over the front leg.
This small change to foot placement is remarkably challenging for many people. They are accustomed to what an aerobic walk feels like, and it usually involves a longer stride. Encourage patience with the shorter stride, even though many describe it as feeling like baby steps.
Here are three ways to help your walkers see how short their forward steps should be:
Option 1
- Have walkers press their heels, glutes, shoulder blades, and backs of heads against a wall (remove any waist packs or water bottle holders).
- Identify this as the walking posture (it is easier to maintain while moving).
- Maintaining the line of the body from ankle to crown of the head, let the body fall forward away from the wall.
- As soon as both heels peel off from the ground, step one foot forward to stop the fall. Note: The goal is not to wait as long as possible to break the fall. Lift and place the front landing foot as soon as both heels start to peel off the ground.
- The place where the foot lands shows an ideal stride length.
Option 2
- Stand on a level surface, feet together, and hold on to a wall, tree, railing, or back of a bench with one hand for balance.
- Raise one knee up to hip height, the foot of that leg dangling below.
- Lower the heel of that dangling foot straight down to the ground, not back to the starting position.
- This is about the size of the step forward, about three to five inches, that should be taken.
Option 3
- Start by taking big steps and feel the bouncing in the body.
- Then take itty-bitty steps, like kids do at the pool when they are running and the lifeguard yells at them to walk.
- Then go back to the long, bouncy strides.
- Feel the difference?
- Now, shorten the stride until the bouncing is eliminated and stick with that.
If you notice any of your walkers bouncing while they walk, the stride has lengthened to the more familiar higher-impact gait, and they have probably slowed down. Remind them to shorten steps in front of the body. You'll give this cue frequently when leading walking groups.
Land on the Heel
A key feature of the walking gait is landing with the toes of the front foot up and the heel down (figure 4.10). While directing walkers' focus to heel placement, it's helpful to encourage awareness to range of motion around the ankle. Good range of motion at the ankle as the front heel strikes results in good positioning of the entire leg. The knee of that landing leg is in extension so that the leg looks straight to the observer. If the foot lands flat or on the forefoot, the knee is in flexion and the walk turns into a shuffle or possibly a jog. Heel-down and toe-up foot placement facilitates a smooth heel-to-toe roll that maximizes the range of motion at the ankle. For people with knee injuries or weakness, an emphasis on knee extension builds strength in the quadriceps muscles, helping to stabilize the joint and protect it from injury. Also, a straight-leg landing lowers the risk for knee injury because the braking load of landing is distributed throughout the entire leg rather than in the knee ligaments, as happens when a bent knee takes more impact while running or jogging.
Figure 4.10 As the front leg steps forward, land on the heel, pulling the toes up toward the shin.
A side effect of increasing step cadence is that walkers often feel shin fatigue, which they will describe as shin pain, even shin splints. It is uncommon for walkers to get shin splints, but the shin fatigue they experience from increasing the cadence can be debilitating and extremely uncomfortable. Encourage them by telling them that this muscular fatigue pain typically decreases over time as they become stronger and familiar with the new technique. See Ease Shin Pain section later in this chapter for ways to help your clients.