OK to use Heel-Toe stepping in everyday walking ?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

The more I look into the way the program is structured, as well as all materials created by Mr Frantzis, the more it looks to me like they are organized like rehabilitation programs. The way exercices and practices build upon one another, and anything must be integrated in a relaxed manner beore going to the next, more complex step, reminds of programs in speech therapy for example, designed to correct improper lifelong habits like lisping or stuttering and replacing them with the normal, natural way the body works.

This leads me to my actual question or this post :
is BaGua walking the way we should aim at walking in our everyday life ?
It looks to me like Heel-Toe stepping could be used everywhere, all the time, quite naturally and without anyone thinking that we’re doing anything special.

Am I correct in thinking this ?
Or are there contraindications to integrating 3 (or 4, or 2) -part Heel-Toe walking to every moment of our daily moves ?

Erwan

[Anonymous]

Here’s an interesting link on barefoot running/evolution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrnj-7YKZE

They’ve discovered that landing on your heel when running, it’s like getting hit with a hammer 2-3x your body weight. Ouch! There’s even a graphic display of kinetic energy displaying heel impact versus forefoot impact (similar to mud stepping).

[Anonymous]

Hey Rich, That’s a really interesting video – thanks for posting. I was also thinking about stepping training in tai chi, where a forward step is normally heel-toe but initially with no impact or weight. The first version of this I learned was Chen Man-ching’s “walking on thin ice” [Imagine you are walking on slippery thin ice with one inch of water underneath. You don’t want to break through the ice or slip and fall.]. I think that could be applied to bagua heel-toe stepping, but not sure exactly how.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure heel toe walking done in taiji has a lot of relevance to baguazhang as well, though my experience in that art compared to running is pretty much nill. Controlling the impact of our foot is primarily done through educating our walking and/or running gait. Who knew something so natural can be made more or less efficient through habit.

Speaking of good habits, for everyone out there, Don is an EA instructor in more than a few of Frantzis’ Qigong/Nei Gong programs and has helped me out tremendously in D&T and Energy Gates. Thanks Don.

[Author]

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