Why Do I Walk Heavily on Feet?

I walk heavily on my feet. I always feel like there's something strange with the way I walk but I didn't know what it is until recently. It has nothing to do with laziness or reluctance to go somewhere I have to go. It's just that I sort of stomping on the ground when I walk.

It wasn't that obvious until I walk on a wood floor during our latest family trip. I even got nicknamed 'little elephant' because of this. I suspect, it's because I walk on my heel. My heels crack a lot and often sore after long walking. Not to mention that my shoe heel often crack too soon than the rest of shoe.

Is that how people stomp? Why do I stomp? Most men walk heavily on their feet, right? But women usually walk lightly on their feet... Is this natural or a social expectation?

Anyway, I thought it's strange that my mom is way heavier than me but her feet are light. We all walk like a soldier, me, mom, aunts, but they don't stomp or walk heavily at all. I want to stop walking like that.

I tried looking for answers on the internet and so far, no satisfying answer yet but, I found people who walk heavily on their feet just like I do: (click on the link to understand my reply or explanation below each link)

Emily
True, and I always thought that was odd until recently.

CC
She's 16, not fat, and not a nun (huh, I didn't know nun walk heavily on their feet on purpose) and her parents thought it's because she walk on her heel. So, how are we suppose to walk? On tip toe?

after all, Fnick is superman.
Um no, Katie. It has nothing to do with the shoes I'm wearing. Control my foot step instead of letting it drop? Is that how everyone else do it? I thought it should be natural, where you don't have to think about walking in order to walk rightly? But I'll keep this in mind. Thanks, Katie.

rrossorr's neighbor
This one make me almost laugh. Yes, when I walk, it rattles everything on the floor. You'd be mistaking it for a tiny earthquake.

exl_chic
I'm starting to wonder if she has the same problem like me but didn't realize it...

Other than that, there aren't much about walking heavily on the net at all. I found this article about knee pain that seems related to this problem. I wonder if this problem is actually uncommon or I'm using the wrong phrases here for searching.

So anyway, here are some of the relevant advices I compiled from all these links:

• Try to relax when you walk
• Control your foot as it hits the floor instead of letting drop
• Walk on tiptoe
• Walk on heel then toe
• Think lightly when you walk

And.. some more! A step by step guide on how not to walk heavily by a silat practitioner!

1. Don't ''step'' but place your foot & shift the weight onto it (tigers are experts at doing this when hunting)
2. Create a low centre of gravity over a wide stance
3. When you do shift the weight onto your lead foot dip slightly to again slowly transfer the weight onto the floor
4. Depending on your foot you may find it less noisy to ''tip toe'' or to transfer the weight in a normal walking manner. My feet tend to crack when i tip toe.

And last but not least, another walking guide by Dr. Jolie BookSpan:

1. When going down steps or a hill, use muscles to step down lightly.
2. Use the leg still on the upper step to decelerate.
3. Instead of just falling onto the lower step, keep weight on the upper leg to lower yourself lightly.
4. Then add shock absorption from the leg that steps down.
5. Bend the knee and use thigh muscles as you touch the ground.
6. The same principles apply to normal walking and running.

I wish we'd go on more holiday trip soon :D I would like to test these advices out before I forget! We're back at home now, so there's no wooden floor to test on.

When I tried them on the tiled floor, my walk is noticeably less noisy as long I do it slowly. As soon as I accelerate my paces, it gets noisy again. So it's hard to say for sure if it works or not.