Your First Steps Matter When You Stand And Walk
Those first few movements can reveal how your body is organizing itself.
Your First Steps Matter Because Your Feet Provide Information
Balance begins with constant communication between the ground and your nervous system.
Notice Why Your First Steps Matter Throughout The Day
Standing after sitting gives you another chance to notice how naturally you move.
Your Feet Are Talking To Your Nervous System All Day
The human body has a slightly unfair arrangement built in.
Your feet spend almost the entire day carrying you around, negotiating floors, pavements, stairs, slopes and badly placed coffee tables, yet they receive very little gratitude until something goes wrong.
Then suddenly they become the most important two objects in the house.
Dennis Bartram has never regarded the feet as mere platforms attached to the ends of the legs. To him, they are part of a much larger sensory system.
Every time you stand, the feet provide information about the surface underneath you.
Where is the pressure?
Is more weight travelling through one side?
Is the floor firm or uneven?
Are the toes able to respond?
What happens when your weight begins moving forward?
You are not consciously asking those questions.
Fortunately, your nervous system is.
And that makes the feet rather more interesting than the things we stuff into shoes before leaving the house.
Your Feet Help The Body Decide What Happens Next
Try standing on a solid kitchen floor and then imagine standing on a mattress.Same body.
Same muscles.
Same age.
Completely different response.
On the firm floor, the nervous system receives clear information about where the ground is. On an unstable surface, the body immediately begins making more adjustments.
The ankles work differently.
The knees respond.
The hips become involved.
The trunk changes.
Even the head’s position may shift as the body tries to stay organised.
Nothing works alone.
That is why Dennis pays attention to what is happening at ground level.
The feet are continuously supplying sensory information that contributes to balance and movement.
If that information changes, the body’s response may change too.
This does not mean every problem begins in the feet.
Dennis has spent far too long working with the whole body to fall into that trap.
It means the feet deserve to be included in the conversation.
Why Shoes Can Change What You Notice
Most of us spend huge parts of our lives wearing shoes.
Quite sensible really.
British pavements are not famous for their spa-like qualities.
But footwear inevitably changes the relationship between the foot and the ground.
A thick sole provides a very different experience from standing barefoot on a firm surface.
A narrow shoe changes how freely the toes can spread.
A heel alters the position from which the body begins organising itself.
Again, none of this means shoes are inherently bad.
Dennis is interested in awareness rather than issuing commandments from the mountain.
The useful question is:
What do you notice?
Stand comfortably in your usual footwear.
Take a few steps.
Then, where it is safe and appropriate, compare that sensation with standing barefoot or in a different pair of shoes.
Does anything change?
Perhaps nothing obvious happens.
The floor may feel clearer.
One foot may seem more involved than the other.
The object is not to decide instantly that you’ve discovered the cause of every bodily complaint since 1974.
It is simply to gather information.
That habit of noticing runs through Active Balance again and again.
Small Changes At Ground Level Can Travel Upwards
Anyone who has ever stood with a stone in their shoe already understands this principle.
One tiny object underfoot can alter the entire walk.
You avoid putting pressure on the uncomfortable spot.
The ankle changes.
The knee changes.
The hip responds.
The pelvis may shift.
Within seconds, a problem measuring half an inch has recruited half the body.
Remove the stone and the movement changes again.
That example is deliberately obvious.
Dennis’s work often explores much subtler changes.
Perhaps one foot is not accepting weight as freely as the other.
Maybe somebody habitually loads the outer edge.
Perhaps the toes are doing far more gripping than the person realises.
Dennis is not interested in forcing the foot into an imaginary “perfect” position.
He wants to know how the whole system responds when the information changes.
That brings us straight back to those first few steps.
Stand after sitting.
Notice the feet.
Then walk.
Where does the weight seem to travel?
Which foot feels more secure?
Does one step feel shorter?
There is no pass mark.
Observation comes first.
Balance Is Not About Standing Like A Statue
Another common misunderstanding Dennis likes to dismantle.
Good balance does not mean becoming perfectly still.
A statue is wonderfully stable.
It is also hopeless at crossing the road.
Human balance has to remain adaptable.
When we walk, we constantly move beyond a stable two-footed position and catch ourselves again.
One foot leaves the ground.
Weight moves through the other.
The body travels forward.
Then the next foot arrives.
Walking is a beautifully controlled series of recoveries.
That is why foot information matters.
The nervous system needs to know what is happening underneath you while the rest of the body continues moving above it.
If somebody feels uncertain, the natural response may be to reduce movement.
Shorter steps.
More stiffness.
Less arm swing.
A wider stance.
Those strategies can sometimes be useful.
They can also become habits.
Dennis’s interest lies in helping people explore whether movement can become more confident without simply ordering them to “stand up straight” or “take bigger steps.”
The First Step Is A Better Test Than A Perfect Pose
This is where today’s story joins yesterday’s.
The photograph is not the test.
The exercise is not the test.
The impressive-looking stretch is not the test.
The first ordinary step is the test.
Can you rise from the chair and move away with less hesitation?
Can the foot meet the ground without the rest of the body preparing for battle?
Can walking begin without that familiar sense of needing three or four steps to get everything going?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Dennis would rather have an honest observation than a manufactured success story.
This is self-maintenance, not theatre.
And because the first step happens dozens of times every day, it gives you repeated opportunities to notice how the body is organising itself.
Getting out of bed.
Leaving the dining table.
Standing after watching television.
Getting out of the car.
Rising after working at a desk.
The day is full of little movement tests we never realised we were taking.
Give Your Feet A Minute Before Demanding A Mile
Dennis’s approach holds a lovely bit of common sense.
We often talk about walking as exercise in miles, steps or minutes.
Ten thousand steps.
Thirty-minute walk.
Two miles before lunch.
Yet every one of those impressive totals begins with one foot accepting your weight and another foot leaving the ground.
Dennis brings attention back to that first moment.
Before asking the body for a mile, give it a minute.
Move gently.
Notice the feet.
Notice your balance.
Stand.
Then take those first few steps without trying to perform them.
The improvement, if there is one, may not be dramatic enough to interest a television advert.
That is a good sign.
Fireworks rarely accompany real self-maintenance.
Sometimes it is simply the discovery that the first step feels easier than it did ten minutes ago.
And that small change can be enough to make somebody curious.
Trust Your Body Again And Live Without Limitation
After listening to this, what’s your body’s immediate reaction?
The Apprentice Task
Later today, choose a safe chair that you regularly use.
Before standing, notice where your feet are resting.
Stand normally and take five ordinary steps.
Do not correct anything.
Notice.
Then sit again.
This time, spend a few seconds becoming aware of both feet against the floor before you stand.
Notice the heels.
Notice the front of the feet.
Notice whether one side seems clearer than the other.
Then rise and take the same five steps again.
Ask yourself one question:
Did the first step feel any different?
You are not trying to diagnose anything.
You are learning to notice the information your body has been giving you all along.
Because when Dennis talks about Active Balance, the journey does not always begin in the spine.
Sometimes it begins much lower down.
Right where you have been standing all day.
