[Harumanbo Harucheonja] "Correct Your Posture First, Then Walk"

Prerequisites for Proper Walking According to a Physical Therapist
Gait Issues Revealed Through Foot Shape and Walking Pattern Analysis
Correction Through Accurate Diagnosis Followed by Treatment or Exercise Prescription

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] "Looking at the measurement results right now, you can see that a lot of weight is being placed on the left foot, right? The heel touches the ground more firmly than the front of the foot. It's usually okay if your gait slightly leans toward the arm you use more often, but if you're not left-handed and still have this kind of difference, it's because your body is twisted. You need to consciously put more strength into the opposite right leg while walking."

On the afternoon of the 14th, at the Ilwon Ecopark Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the "Walking Together for Value: Disabled and Non-disabled" event was held. At one side of the venue, arranged through a donation from the Korea Walking Association's Love Sharing initiative, Kang Sung-hoon, a physical therapist at Samsung Seoul Hospital (pictured, 53, Rehabilitation Medicine Intensive Exercise Therapy Room), was examining each participant's foot shape and gait, correcting their walking posture. After standing straight on a gait analyzer equipped with pressure sensors and taking five or six steps as usual, data measuring the angle of the foot, pressure distribution (plantar pressure), walking speed, and stride length is generated. Based on this, he explained what problems exist in the gait and how to correct them. Kang, who serves as an advisory education director for the association, has worked for nearly 30 years at a general hospital, providing rehabilitation therapy to numerous patients who have difficulty moving due to cerebral palsy, stroke, Parkinson's disease, or who are recovering from major surgeries after traffic accidents. He can quickly identify musculoskeletal or gait problems just by observing a patient's standing posture.

Kang said, "Patients with severe brain diseases who visit hospitals for treatment must go through a long rehabilitation process before returning to daily life. Being involved in this process naturally led me to take an interest in preventive exercises that help maintain health without pain for a long time. With the aging population increasing and the enormous medical costs for them becoming a social issue, it is very important for citizens to maintain their health through proper exercise," he emphasized.

Physical therapist Kang Seong-hoon (right) is explaining the importance of walking correctly after measuring the gait of a participant. / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

As a physical therapist, the exercises he recommends for general health are walking, swimming, and indoor cycling. These are basic exercises that middle-aged and older adults can do to maintain cardiopulmonary function, muscle strength, and posture. Among these, walking is considered the best activity because it can be done easily and safely anytime and anywhere. Kang himself was once an avid walking enthusiast, walking two hours daily and up to four hours on weekends. Even now, he often walks the entire 1 hour and 40 minutes from Ilwon-dong Samsung Seoul Hospital to Gangnam Station, where he takes the express bus home after work. While walking in the city, he often has to stop at crosswalk signals. He explained that applying 'interval walking,' which alternates between walking fast for a few minutes and then slowly, helps improve muscle strength and endurance more than walking at a constant pace.

Kang advised, "Walking exercise only requires putting on sneakers and going outside to invest time, but the problem arises when you continue walking with incorrect posture. Just as people with weak knees can get injured if they hike or climb stairs indiscriminately, it's necessary to check at least once whether you might be walking with a bad posture you are unaware of." For example, if your usual sneakers wear out faster on one side or only the inside of the shoe wears out, it could be due to flat feet, a difference in leg length, or putting more force on one leg while walking, causing asymmetry in the body.

Habits like standing with one leg bent or sitting with crossed legs are already memorized in the brain and tend to be repeated unconsciously. If you experience pain in your feet, legs, or lower back, or if your neck and shoulders become stiff and you get headaches the more you walk, you should visit a nearby orthopedic or rehabilitation medicine clinic for an accurate diagnosis. After receiving appropriate treatment or exercise prescriptions, correct your posture before walking. Kang said, "If you have severe pain in the soles of your feet or tingling in your ankles, medication or injection treatment may be necessary. The overall sense of balance in the body, the muscles of the lower limbs, and even the condition of the muscles in the soles and toes all significantly affect walking."