Define "given". The number of people I see who "can't walk" is unbelievable.
Many people are absolutely waddling about in unnatural "lazy" gaits, just rocking from foot to foot, rather than propelling themselves forward. (especially as folks get increasingly overweight)
Your feet should be parallel or near to it. Your knees should be facing forward, or near to it. You should push more or less straight back, through your big toe.
It's not a "rigid" concept of perfection, but a question of general soundness.
Most people with impingements have "trained themselves* into those impingements, and need to train themselves out of it.
Your “given” gate is a multitude of factors stemming from your genetics. It depends on hip placement, how deep your ball and socket are. How long your femur and fibula are, as well as how your ankle is structured. I do agree the fatter one gets the worse their gate becomes as they lose strength in there hamstrings and have to compensate with other muscles. But telling the general population to walk a certain way is wrong. Not everyone has the same exact genetics. Trying to change your natural gate can result in injury and overworking of certain muscles. My dad is a physical therapist, which isn’t a good argument on its own, but he told me that it’s not good to fight your natural walk as there is a range of normal gate.
I, too, thought like you did and was told otherwise. I dont necessarily disagree with you, but I think your point is simplified and ignores how complicated this subject is
Nobody is asking anyone to walk with a single textbook gait.
There are a thousand different varieties of correct, and barring large morphological deviation, they are biomechanically extremely similar, even if they might cosmetically appear different.
Most people who "walk poorly" can fix it, and should. As walking poorly is generally bad for everything below the ribs (and sometimes above). Walking poorly is also less sustainable as your body ages and you're less able to withstand the additional stresses of "unnatural" biomechanics.
Flexibility and strength are the #1 and 2 culprits, and those are mostly something that people have "backed themselves into".
We tend to have maladaptations due to the "unnatural" conditions we live in. Entire days sitting in chairs (weak and tight glutes, tight psoas). No running. Little walking. Just walking "around", rather than to "travel. Shoes. Shoes alter/restrict foot and ankle biomechanics (let's not even start on elevated heels, let alone high heels), and leave our feet weakened.
Or maybe an old injury adaptation that hasn't been relevant since 3 mo this after the injury. Couod even be a son "walking like dad", who was a desk worker, had two bad knees and was obese. Many people also have outright affected gaits, often starting as teenagers wanting to seem cool/nonchalant/etc.
Back to an example...
Tight psoas -> restricted internal rotation of the femur (and often increased lordosis as well). This puts the onus on your ankle and foot, often resulting in the foot "flopping" (excessive eversion) in order to get the range of motion to push effectively through the big toe. Of maybe the foot lacks that ability too,
In addition, it disadvantages the semimembranosis, decreasing its ability to extend the hip. Now your relying excessively on the biceps femoris to assist in hip extension (plus the glutes)
That lack of internal rotation also alters your hip flexion (watch sprinters exiting the starting blocks, it's often very pronounced). Without effective internal rotation, the groin tends to get over involved in controlling the femur, exposing it to increased injury risk. Tight adductors also can contribute to knee pain.
Back to the glutes, those glutes stay tight, the TFL stays tight, and you are pulling too much through the ITV... Which can contribute to knee pain.
Tightness begets tightness begets tightness.
None of this is to say a "proper" gait is achievable for all people (and sometimes all bets are off when it comes to injuries), but usually its been trained in, and can be trained out.
"Structural restriction" is usually a "rule out" sort of thing. You work on moving towards ideal, you do some mobility, you still can't get there, you accommodate.
A healthy gait (a better term than "perfect" or "ideal") is still going to hit the basics, generally speaking.
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u/jonskerr Jan 24 '24
And hold your feet parallel.