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by nmarinov 725 days ago
> I had disc herniation and my mother, who is a retired doctor, said to just do a lot of fast walking.

Anecdotally slow walking makes my sciatica worse and fast walking alleviates any pain in minutes.

Did your mother, or your research, point to any reasons why fast walking in particular?

My working theory for my body in particular is that I'm more on my toes with less heel impact but I couldn't find anything other than anecdotes here. Also light skipping on my toes helps in a similar matter in a pinch.
1 comments
buybackoff 725 days ago
My explanation/understanding is that fast walking with larger strides creates rotational movement around the spine axis and that stimulates the tissue. With slow walking, one could do that with no body rotation and only the legs move.
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nmarinov 724 days ago
Hmm, there might be something to that. Thanks

I'll experiment with it and try to isolate it. The description reminds me of twisting but twisting is often associated with more pain. However there are some videos that suggest similar movements relieve symptoms. This one[1] seems quite popular.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMP1lYEJAko

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