How to walk in High Heels
Wearing high heels can make you stand so that your legs looks slimmer, your stomach is flatter, and your femininity is unstoppable. It can also do wonders for your stride, but walking in high heels is not a natural talent-it’s learned skill, perfected by practice and discipline.
- First practice just standing in high heels. In front of a full length mirror, stand for a while, then turn slightly to each side. Not only will you be able to check your posture and profile, but the act of merely standing in high heels will help remove some of your apprehension, and let you get accustomed to the added height of the heel.
Walking in the highest heels isn’t like the walking you learned to do when you were a child, so you have to do a few things that might feel counterintuitive:
- Take small, slow steps, making sure not to bend your knees any more than you normally would. You’ll notice that heels tend to shorten your stride a bit. The taller the heel, the shorter the stride ends up being.
- Put your heel down first right before your toes (don’t plop them down at the same time, and don’t put your toes down first). Once your weight is on the balls of your feet, shift your weight forward, as if you’re walking on your tip toes.
- Keep your legs close together. Catwalk models will often cross one foot slightly in front of the other to give their hips a little more sway, but it’ll take some extra practice to master this.
- Stand with the heel of one foot touching the middle of the other foot, while cocked at an angle from it. Put your weight on the toe of the foot in back and when it gets tired, switch.
- When it comes to actually walking comfortably, practice, practice, practice. If you haven’t ever worn high heels, or you are already comfortable in high heels, this sounds silly. But trust me, the first time you put them on, you’ll see what I mean. Wearing high heels is a totally different walking experience, and if you take it for granted, you’ll not only end up with sore feet, but possibly an injury. And, if you have a bad experience first time out, you’ll be doomed to flats forever.
If you have any questions about high heels, please feel free to ask me!
