How to Walk Down Stairs with Todd Martin MD-Extended Version

Learn how to walk down stairs with proper technique, good balance, and minimum impact. Visit my website: https://www.movementsphere.com/todd-m...

Walking down stairs is a basic and critical skill that most people need to perform every day, but one that presents challenges to a significant portion of the population. Many people of all ages get pain in the knees when walking down stairs. As people get older, decreases in reflexes and core mobility make walking down stairs the leading cause of accidental injury. Part of the problem is that people do not have conscious awareness of how to use the core properly when going down stairs. We move with remote control based on body memory. When the movement is done incorrectly, it adds significant stress to the knees, leading to pain. Even when people move correctly when they are younger, decreased reflexes with age make reliance on body memory less effective, contributing to the risk of falls. In this video I describe exactly how to use to core to walk down stairs. I will say that this video is designed for people who currently have good mobility. If you already have a challenge keeping your balance going down stairs then it could be risky to try and make a sudden change in the way you move. The most important thing is to stay safe. If you have any challenges with stairs, you should always use the hand rail which I do not do in this video because I am demonstrating the core motion. Because of existing joint problems, some people already need to walk down stairs sideways, one step at a time. If that is your situation, I would not try to practice this technique. My goal here is to help people who are already mobile keep that mobility as they get older, as well as prevent pain which so frequently results from this activity.