About ChiWalking

ChiWalking is an entirely new approach to creating, health, fitness and well-bring through the activity of walking.

ChiWalking combines modern physics with the ancient wisdom of T’ai Chi to create a whole body fitness program for people of any fitness level.

Since walking is such a basic, everyday movement, when your walk form is improved,the benefits are far reaching.

The power of walking
The positive effects of walking are amazing. It’s been shown that walkers have less incidence of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases.  Adults in their 50s and 60s who are physically active are about 35 percent less likely to die within the next eight years than those who are sedentary, according to research.

Avoid pain and gain energy
There are few places to learn to walk correctly. Most people seem to think that walking is like breathing, that we all just naturally walk correctly. First, most people don’t breathe correctly, but that’s another story that we cover in the ChiWalking class. Most people walk in a way that keeps them stuck in poor movement habits that restrict their flow of energy and can even degrade their fitness level.

There are many reasons we don’t walk the way we are supposed to. Through stress and strain, our bodies have become misaligned, imbalanced and stiff. One place we all tend to hold tension without realizing it is in our pelvic area and hips, the area of our body most involved during walking. Stiffness in the hips translates to overuse of the legs, which can cause injury and fatigue. Many people walk in ways that can lead to back pain, knee pain, foot problems, shin splints, sciatica and other common ailments.

Walk from your core
Most people lead with their hips and pull themselves forward with their legs. But the legs are not designed to pull us forward. They are there to move our bodies forward in the world, but to be powered by our strong center, our engaged core. Your core muscles are those deep muscles that work to stabilize your pelvis during movement. It’s not our legs that do the walking – it’s our whole body.

Mind/body connection
With ChiWalking, you’ll learn how to develop a strong mind and body and a connection between the two. You’ll learn how focusing your mind can actually strengthen and relax it, calming you from day-to-day stresses. ChiWalking uses a process called "body sensing" to teach you how to connect your awareness and attention with your body sensations to really listen to what your body is saying and interpret what it needs. Body sensing will tell you when you’re working too hard or not enough. Body sensing is not a thinking process but a sensing process. There’s no judgment with body sensing; it’s more like collecting data. So watch out for phrases such as “I can’t” or “I’m not” or “I have to.”

With ChiWalking, you’ll develop good posture and proper biomechanics that will help you now, tomorrow and for the rest of your life. You’ll learn to develop your core muscles, helping to create balance, stability and coordination. Let me show you how you can walk faster, farther with less effort and more ease. ChiWalking is easy to learn, and with a little practice can help create fitness for your body and mind.