Waking up the back of the legs: hamstrings and glutes

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This is a quick progression using a wall to develop the sensation of using the posterior chain in your legs for walking. Bringing your back and butt against the wall, step your feet about a foot away from the wall and by tilting the pelvis forward find a gentle hamstring stretch. Note: the key here is to feel the butt sliding upwards as you tilt forward - once the butt stops moving is where the pelvis has stopped tilting and any further down you go will be spinal flexion and not a hinge at the hip which we are aiming for. Once you've found the forward fold, feel your heels push down into the ground and back toward the wall and feel the engagement of the legs pull your back upright again and against the wall. Next, do the same forward fold, and instead of bringing your back against the wall, this time let the backward pull of the legs drive your butt off the wall and come to stand over your feet. Then reverse direction and control the motion as you tilt forward with your upper torso and let your butt come back to the wall. As you try this, see if you can do it without momentum forward nor falling back to the wall, but control the motion smoothly the whole way. If this is difficult, you can bring your feet closer to the wall or if you want more of a challenge, step further away. finally, try to sense as you stand up if you can keep your hips from moving over your toes and try to center your hips over your heels. These actions should give you a good sense of working the butt and hamstrings which eventually can become the main drivers of your walking gait.