How to walk in stiletto / high heels?

[Thighbootguy]

Freestyle75,  Many thanks for the great post. 

If you have the time, please tell us what your height is and the length of the stride with which you have become comfortable.

[Steve63130]

Freestyle75,

It sounds like you got good value for your money. The advice the trainer gave you was very valuable, but it's only a start - you need to practice a lot so your muscles get so used to it, you don't even think about it. You just do it all automatically.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Did she make any videos of you walking so that you could see what you looked like? That, to me, seems like it would be very helpful in capturing a starting point from which to measure future progress.

Steve

[freestyle75]

Hi,

thanks for your answers. To be honest, I am not sure whether I am going to be too scientific about the whole thing going forward. After all, it's about having fun. We didn't do any videos, I was more interested in getting the tips from her while I am walking than to later be able to watch me walk on my TV. Doing a first video would imply that I put my videocam (or SLR for that matter) somewhere, e.g. a parking lot, and then start practicing to later see how I was doing. Not sure about you guys, but I won't be doing that ...

Besides, she also told me that it already looked *very* good (not only for a guy, but also for the girls attending), and that the main thing I had to work on was a) my speed of walking (which is common, too fast), and b ) the overall posture, but not that much for the latter one. What I found very much fun was to walk in a straight line instead of the regular way I walk. I tried it this morning with my (regular Oxford) flats when walking from the parking lot to work, and with flats, it's just plain silly. As much as it became "natural" with heels, it feels quite "unnatural" with flats.

Mind you, I have been walking in heels now for 6 years (and quite often, and not only at home, but basically every time I am doing stuff on the weekends), so there is not such a steep learning curve for me anymore. The only thing that will progress with time surely is the ability to walk in higher heels. One comment from her that I forgot to mention: If you are buying heels and just stand in them (leg in a straight line, knees NOT bent), and after just a few (like 3 - 5) minutes your legs ache and you need/want to bend your knees, the heels are probably a bit too high for you. With one of my heels (the last pair), it felt that way. This can be trained, but it takes time and practice. Not so much in the actual walking process, but rather for the muscles to adapt.

On a completely different note, I have ordered Louboutin Bianca boots that are due to arrive tomorrow till 12 p.m.. My second pair of Louboutins, but my first pair with stilettos. Gosh, I am sooooo much looking forward to it. They will be delivered to work (easier to pickup because of FedEx delivery), but I cannot open the box until I am home. This will be a very hard day for me tomorrow...

[pebblesf]

What a great experience that session must have been!  Very valuable information indeed.  I am very aware of my shorter strides in higher heels, and will have to practice stretching my stride a bit to avoid walking too fast. 

Enjoy your new boots, they are beautiful!  I think seeing a video of our own heeling might help encourage as well as pointing out where we need to improve. 

Great stuff, thanks!  Don

[Heelster]

On 10/29/2015, 10:54:28, TXGuy said:

This past week in walking about, sometimes walking a little quicker, I noticed on the 3.5 inch heel, that when I put the ball of my foot down, there was tension in the heel when I lifted the heel up in walking forward. In my walk, I bent the heel slightly forward as I put my weight down on the heel and put the ball of my foot down.  When lifting up, I felt the heel slightly rub against the ground releasing the tension as it was able to spring back slightly.  Obviously, I am not a master.  Has any else noticed that with stiletto heels?  I do not have that much experience with these smaller heels. 

Yes - - I've noticed this affect, and I seem to think that some of the cheaper shoes are prone to this. I also noticed in some of these cheaper brands that the whole heel/arch area will twist and flex more than I am comfortable with. I have one pair of peep toe slingbacks that I really like, but I'm afraid to go anywhere in them for this reason. I will probably donate these to Goodwill.

[mlroseplant]

On November 8, 2015 at 10:56:09, freestyle75 said:

So... I just was at the high heel training. In a nutshell: The main advantage is that

1. you have got ample space to walk along a "catwalk" (not comparable to one's living room)
2. you have got someone watching you and giving you instructions on how to improve your walking style

The training was setup as a personal training, meaning that I had full 2 hours of undivided attention of a teacher who has studied sports & dancing. She also wore heels and had an amazing walk - it looked quite effortless.

Me... well... I wanted to learn how to walk in my most difficult boots/shoes, so I took about 10 pairs of those shoes/boots that I either haven't worn yet at all, or have worn them, but had some difficulty. The whole meeting took place at a community center where they also teach dance classes, so there was ample space to walk.

We started off by me walking with the boots that I came with, which were quite easy to walk in - just for the teacher to take a look at how I normally walk. We then did some "warmup" exercises, which is something like standing up on your toes, then bending your knees, then getting up again, etc., so your muscles (especially the calf muscles) get warmed up.

The whole exercise part makes sense if you go for higher heels than you normally wear, as you can train your calf and ankle muscles, so they can deal with the higher height of the heel. Anyway.... it was then that I switched to a pair of stiletto heels that I haven't worn so far for various reasons. First, "stiletto" still feels felt a bit too feminine for me to wear outside, second, I so far lacked the stability of my trusted block heels and wasn't sure whether my walk would be "clumsy" at best.

First thing (and also the question that I started this thread with): You walk in heels as you would walk in flats. No different shift of weight. This heel-to-toe thing also works weight-shift-wise, so you do NOT go heel - toe - shift weight to toe. Rather you go heel, partial shift of weight, toe, full shift of weight, just as you would normally do.

As I have walked quite a lot in block heels, it only took a few times walking up and down the room to "get" the way I have to walk in stiletto boots. Nice. The teacher said that weight-shift wise and how I would walk, this would be great already, but that it would look nicer to walk in a line, and to keep the posture more "up".

Meaning (posture): I tend to look down when I am walking. To see where I am going, but also to avoid stepping into dog excrements This way, my whole posture is more downward-bent, which doesn't look nice. So the teacher first worked on the posture, meaning keeping (mostly) a straight back, and also looking more towards the horizon instead of the next 50 inches of where you are going.

Regarding the virtual line, I just finished a drawing to explain:

 

Naturally, we walk like the leftmost illustration shows. Once people start to hear that in heels they should "walk across a virtual line", it often happens that the left foot is a bit skewed to the right, and the right foot to the left (second left illustration). This is also heavily dependend on the shoe that you are walking with.

This happened at first quite a lot with my stiletto boot, but not at all with my block heels (we tried several pairs to see the difference).

There are two different textbook-approaches or "schools" (opinions) on how the ideal walk-along-a-line walk should be done: The Berlin and the London school.

The Berlin school keeps the foot straight when walking the line, whereas in the London school, the left foot is skewed a bit to the left, whereas the right foot is a bit skewed to the right. Both ways are "right", and it depends on what feels more natural to you when walking.

Personally, I felt that with the London school type of walk, it became more difficult to balance the weight onto the full foot, and not only on the side of the foot.

Finally, there is the exaggerated walk that you see on the runways. The trainer paid close attention that this was NOT happening, as it looks a bit strange if you are walking this way along a street.

 

Another thing that she corrected was the length of stride and the speed of walk. Yes, often they say that with heels, your stride "naturally" becomes shorter. But the effect that happens is that you are only taking baby steps which you then try to offset by walking faster. The better way is to consciously take (a bit) longer strides, but walk slower. There is a fine balance between too short and too long strides, so these cannot be explained in a text, but it was great having a trainer who could give me that guidance.

After some boots with a short shaft, we also switched to some very short ankle boots (the right pair in this picture) that were the most difficult to walk in, as there is not much stability in the whole shoe. I wouldn't have managed to walk in that shoe for longer periods, but once the trainer noticed that I had some difficulty, she took an extra half an hour to do some practices in this pair. Yes, we also did the exercise where you place a book onto your head and walk the catwalk up and down - without the book falling off your head. I managed to do this even with the most difficult pair. They are still the most difficult, but manageable now.

When switching back to my ankle boot Pradas after this extremely difficult pair (Pradas, which I had considered "difficult" cause of the nearly non-existent platform before), it felt like I would switch to sneakers. When I did the walk then, she trainer was in awe at how I walked.

We ended the training with some relaxation movements for your feet. Get one of these to do the same at home.

To summarize: If you have the chance to visit such a training (preferably a personal training), I can wholeheartedly recommend it. For me, my most difficult to walk in boots/shoes became either enjoyable or at least manageable, and the way I walk has changed considerably. I am certain that from now on my stilettos won't be sitting in their boxes as they did before.

 

How absolutely fascinating! I am glad to read your post, and I am glad to know that I am practicing the right things. 

One handicap I face is that I am naturally bowlegged. That single feature is what causes me to be the most self-conscious about wearing heels. After a couple of years of self-guided training, I am now able to touch my knees together without bending my knees, but I know I will never be as graceful as my straight-legged counterparts. I feel the most confident in the winter, when I am wearing my long trench coat, which covers up the majority of my bowed legs. 

I am curious. Now that you have spent two hours with a professional trainer, who told you that you actually walk pretty well, do you still believe that it's your fault that your boots broke? For the record, I never believed that for a minute. I think they were defective. 

[freestyle75]

On 11.11.2015, 05:23:31, mlroseplant said:

I am curious. Now that you have spent two hours with a professional trainer, who told you that you actually walk pretty well, do you still believe that it's your fault that your boots broke? For the record, I never believed that for a minute. I think they were defective. 

Sorry... I just saw your post and I had to laugh. You are absolutely right, I don't believe any longer that it was my fault. Maybe these boots are not made for someone weighting 170 lbs, but then again, they might also break at a much lower "load level". As my cobbler said, most of today's heels - independent on whether you buy Payless or Prada - are just attached via nails, sometimes they are only glued. Depending on the construction of the shoe, the topmost part of the heel might already be so narrow that there are not so many possibilities to properly attach the heel to the shoe. He mentioned this when looking at my boots, but also told me (after repairing them) that he had now put screws into the right boot, and that the heel might break in the middle, but that it's probably not going to come off that easily anymore ).

One thing that I wondered was whether driving a car might put more stress onto the right heel, as the right one broke, while the other (left boot heel) was still very firmly attached to the boot. When asking that question to my trainer, I didn't get a real answer. She just laughed at me and said that she never drives in heels, as "every shoe has a place and you are just ruining the back surface of your heel". Anyway... if the heel was not attached properly to the boot in the beginning, the way it broke is very much similar to the stress you put on it while driving (bending the bottom of the heel towards the front of the shoe while resting on the heel - this applies only to boots with extremely high heels).
Second thing: While walking that day when the one heel came lose, I stumbled over an electrical cable which was covered with some plastic sheet at a crossroad where they were tearing the street open. That might have caused additional stress. Anyway... I don't really know WHY it broke, but my teacher definitely made clear to me that I wasn't the one responsible.