About Walking - 3 - Elbows and Ribs, Passing and UP
Sammy and Dez Road Marching to “One Love” - click the image to watch this little Walk Cycle video. IT’s all in the elbows!! By my nephew, Jacob Lenard, Animator.
About Walking - 3 - Elbows and Ribs, Passing and UP
Swing the Center Around and Up
Based on “AY 18 - Chanukia/Candelabra Lesson”
The Animator’s Walk Cycle
The second part of the walk cycle is about turning the body (passing) and lifting the other leg to get ready for the next step (up). This lesson is about feeling the torso turn and the shoulder girdle lifting to give the torso room to move. Lifting makes space for the back leg to straighten and push the pelvis around. Think of the feet and arms as helping guide the pelvis around and forward.
The first two lessons in this series were about identifying and consciously using the first two parts of the animator’s walk cycle:
“Contact” - heel touches the floor and relays the ground forces up the leg.
“Down” - is the exhale/low back release as the weight shifts to the contact foot.
We practiced using the big, strong, rounded calcaneus bone to contact the floor and roll forward as we shifted weight onto the standing leg.
This lesson focuses on the second of the walk cycle:
“Passing” - shifting the weight of the pelvis forward onto the stepping leg, which turns the ribs, shoulders and head toward the center line
“Up” - lifting the upper body to give the ‘stepping’ leg room to naturally lift before touching down for the next contact.
The elbows and knees are key to this lesson. We will be using the “Chanukia/Candelabra” lesson as our laboratory, helping us build up the groove, momentum, of the ribs rolling and lifting side to side, guided by the swing of the arms.
On our backs, we drop our hands back to the floor overhead, then down to hips: first together, then in opposite directions (like in walking.). Feel into the chest lift with the breath and the ribs roll as the shoulder blades slide towards and away from the spine.
We layer on the feet pressing up from the floor and into the body. and finally connect everything to center of power: the pelvis.
We will be lying on the floor, sitting on a flat-bottomed chair and standing to gradually build the coordination a happy walk.
Set Up for lying, sitting, standing:
Have a mat on the floor and any supports you like to protect your back, neck, thighs. You might want some small rolled towels to support the hands.
AND flat-bottom chair, armless chair where knees and hips are level.
AND a firm surface to stand on - near a wall or have a stable chair for balance
We approached this lesson in the “Grand Horizontals” series, focusing then on the way the arms and shoulder blades connect to the skeleton through the clavicles and breastbone. You can review the entire series here.
“Grand Horizontals - 1 - Walk Like An Egyptian” is a variation of this lesson, spun for fun and an emphasis on the clavicles. Lots of goodies in the Science Nerd Candy Bowl, where you can learn about the collar bones (clavicles) , Shoulder Girdle, and rotator cuff:
Science Nerd Candy Bowl for Walkers:
Anatomy Walk Cycle- smitty head (1:48) transformations from skeleton to muscles to viscera etc. YouTube considers this video potentially pornographic because one of the animated transformations includes are real man penis. I was unable to embed it, but you can click right through, I think… (never encountered this before)
Running anatomy, elastic recoil – Muscle and Motion (0:46) No little dough boys constructing anatomy, but a useful lesson in the physics of walking (spring action of the lower legs)
Walking Biomechanics by Union Orthotics & Pedorthics – ssl1956 (2:49) This promo for the Orthotics industry animates, quite clearly, all the different ways you can hurt yourself when not properly aligned in walking. No audio - you can safely watch at 2x. Hey - one of those walkers might be you.
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Appreciative of your heels; Aware of the relationship between breath and stepping; Able to engage the pelvic floor action in walking; Clearer on the weight shift into the standing leg in “down”, Tuned into how the ribs and torso conduct the force of walking up from the pelvis and down from the momentum of swinging arms; Ready to apply this on the ski slope (I’ve been and it can be transformational), the green, tap dancing and the fine art of walking.
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Plancy’s World, a spoof on kid’s TV, was one of Jacob’s early series. He allowed his aunt to contribute to this episode. Not my greatest role, but I tried. Next time, speak INTO the mic.