When we’ve discussed technique in the past and how to adapt and improve the way you walk, so that your walking style is more effective and more efficient, we sometimes get comments back saying that if you have bad technique – meaning you’re not walking efficiently – you’ll improve your fitness faster because you’ll be working harder.
Now, we can see the logic in that assertion but it’s missing the point by a mile (or kilometre if you prefer). Good technique is not about making the workout easier, it’s about getting your body to move in the most effective and efficient way. Once you’re moving in the most effective and efficient way, you then layer on effort which brings fitness improvement. The outcome of working hard with a good technique is that you move faster and can go longer. The effort level though is the same as if you have poor technique, it’s just that with poor technique, you’re being held back from achieving higher speeds or longer distances.
It’s also not about perfecting a technique for technique’s sake or to look right or conform to some kind of style rule. We work on technique for a purpose – to improve and to open up our potential to achieve something beyond just the walk itself.
Where the myth falls down the most though, is that bad technique married with a strong effort means you’re putting your muscles and tendons under greater stress than they need to be and that can lead to soreness at best, injury at worst.
If your aim is to have a good strong workout and to feel that you’ve really worked hard and made progress, the last thing you want is to feel like you’re not going to be able to get up in the morning!
Good technique enables strong effort, it supports it and it also expands your potential to achieve something. If your walking technique is as effective and efficient as it can be, then there’s no limit to what you can achieve, either in terms of speed or duration.
Work hard with a good technique and you’ll travel further faster. Work hard with an ineffective technique and you’re just working harder. The outcome will be the same in terms of your cardiovascular gains – you worked hard in both circumstances but with one, you held greater speed for longer (which means you achieved more) and with the other, you placed greater strain on your body, potentially risking injury over time.
So why challenge the need to develop a good technique? Well, it is true that, historically, there hasn’t been a significant focus on technique among walkers, unlike in the running community. The exception of course is Race or Nordic walking, where technique is a key element and for runners, good technique matters a lot, especially for injury prevention.
But in the walking community, there tends to be a somewhat passive approach to technique. Walkers walk the way they walk and at a pace they feel comfortable with and that’s that. They’re not competing with anyone, so they don’t feel the need to think about improving their speed or endurance.
But with Sport Walking, there’s always a higher purpose – something to achieve by walking – so looking at the way you walk and seeking to change, adapt or improve does have a tangible benefit. It’s about becoming a better version of yourself to achieve more.
Of course any walker can benefit from improving their technique, even if they’re not Sport Walking. If you can walk faster, you can travel further in the same time, opening up more routes for you to enjoy and if you can walk more efficiently, then you’ll suffer less fatigue and that might mean having a more fulfilling walk overall.
But at the end of the day, whether a walker chooses to improve or refine their walking technique is completely up to them and there’s no reason why anyone should change if they don’t feel the need or desire to do so. Walking is such a liberating activity and however you take it on, a walk is a good thing, no matter what.
For the myth that working hard with an ineffective technique will get you fitter faster though, we can safely say “myth busted”!
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