Podiatrist · Specialist in Biomechanics · Founder of VOLKAN
"Health is not about always making the same movement. It is about being able to do it in many different ways."
"Am I walking well?"
It is one of the questions I hear most in consultation.
Runners ask it.
Older people.
Patients with pain.
Parents worried about how their children walk.
Everyone expects a simple answer.
A yes.
Or a no.
But biomechanics rarely works that way.
Because walking well does not mean repeating exactly the same pattern thousands of times.
It means having enough resources to adapt to each situation.
Nature hates rigidity.
Watch a tree on a windy day.
It does not remain completely still.
It moves.
It sways.
It adapts.
That ability to slightly deform is precisely what prevents it from breaking.
Our body works in a very similar way.
Joints continuously change a few degrees.
Muscles modify their tension.
Feet distribute pressure differently with each step.
Breathing alters postural tone.
Nothing remains exactly the same.
And that is good news.
Because life does not remain the same either.
Two steps are never identical
If we could record with enormous precision each of the steps you take during a walk, we would discover something surprising.
There is none exactly like the previous one.
The speed changes by a few tenths.
The pressure under the fingers varies slightly.
The time of support is different.
The muscles activate with small differences.
Even the movement of the arms changes.
For many years these small differences were interpreted as errors.
Today we know that, to a large extent, they are part of the normal functioning of the body.
The nervous system introduces small variations continuously.
Not because it is imprecise.
But because it is distributing the loads and adapting to the environment.
The problem is not changing
Interestingly, many injuries appear when we stop having alternatives.
When a tissue always bears the same load.
When a joint always moves the same.
When we always use the same strategy.
Not because that strategy is incorrect.
But because it becomes the only one available.
Imagine a pianist who could only play one note.
Or a writer who only knew one word.
The problem would not be that note.
Nor that word.
The problem would be the lack of options.
With movement, the same thing happens.
The brain always seeks solutions
Every time the terrain changes, the brain adapts the strategy.
We do not walk the same on sand as we do on asphalt.
We do not use the same pattern when carrying a heavy backpack.
Nor when we are tired.
Nor when we walk barefoot.
Nor when we dodge a puddle.
The nervous system continuously modifies movement to respond to the circumstances.
That ability to choose between different solutions is one of the greatest indicators of health.
Not because there is a perfect technique.
But because there are many effective ways to solve the same problem.
What does this have to do with barefoot?
A lot.
It is often said that barefoot teaches you to walk "correctly".
I prefer to explain it another way.
A foot with more freedom has more possibilities to adapt.
The toes can participate.
The plantar arch modifies its behavior better.
The intrinsic muscles engage more easily.
Sensory information increases.
That does not automatically make a movement better.
But it can expand the repertoire of available strategies.
And the larger that repertoire, the more capacity the organism has to adapt to different situations.
What I see every day in consultation
There are patients who arrive obsessed with perfectly placing each part of the body.
They try to walk thinking about the heel.
In the arch.
In the knee.
In the pelvis.
In the shoulders.
In the head.
In the end, they stop walking.
They start to control every movement.
And the body loses its naturalness.
My goal is never to turn a person into a biomechanical robot.
It is to help them regain enough confidence for movement to become spontaneous again.
Because the nervous system organizes movement better when it stops fighting against it.
What you can do starting today
Introduce variety into your movement.
Change your route when you go out for a walk.
Explore different terrains.
Go up a hill.
Go down some stairs.
Walk more slowly for a few minutes and then speed up slightly.
Don’t try to make it perfect.
Try to give the body different experiences.
Each of them expands the repertoire of solutions of the nervous system.
And an organism with more resources tends to adapt better to the challenges of daily life.
🔬 In a sentence
Variability is not a defect of movement. It is one of its greatest strengths.
The most important idea
The goal of biomechanics should not be to create people who always move the same.
It should be to help each person have enough strategies to adapt to any situation.
Because the perfect movement does not exist.
What exists is an extraordinarily intelligent organism that changes continuously to remain efficient.
True stability does not come from rigidity.
It comes from the ability to change when the environment demands it.
A question to reflect on
When you try to improve your way of moving…
Are you looking to copy an ideal pattern… or are you expanding the number of solutions your body can use?
In the next article…
So far we have talked about how the body learns, adapts, and organizes movement.
But there is a factor that can completely change that organization in just seconds.
It is not a muscle.
It is not a joint.
Not even a injury.
It is fear.
Why do we walk differently when we think we are going to fall?
Why can an old injury continue to modify our way of moving even years later?
And how can an emotion alter biomechanics without us even realizing it?
In the next chapter we will delve into one of the most fascinating topics in neurobiomechanics: the relationship between fear, confidence, and movement.