Why Walking Will Fix Pain — When You Know How to Align Your Body

May is national walking month in the UK and for a lot of people, it feels like the simplest place to start….And it is. Walking for pain relief is one of the most accessible, low-impact ways to begin improving your health and moving your body again.

This month also encourages the #Try20 Challenge — walking for at least 20 minutes every day throughout May. It’s a brilliant idea. But here’s the truth most people aren’t told:

Walking will not fix pain on its own. How you walk matters far more than how much you walk. Remember, we will strengthen into the position we are in when exercising.

Walking Is the Right Starting Point — But Not the Full Solution

If you’re dealing with pain, stiffness, or long-term discomfort, walking is often the safest place to begin.

It’s natural, it’s repeatable, it doesn’t overload the body.

The #Try20 Challenge it works well because it encourages consistency — and consistency is what your body responds to. But walking is also repetitive and repetition will either:

There isn’t really a middle ground.

Why Walking Doesn’t Always Seem To Work

This is something I hear all the time: “I walk every day, but nothing changes’….And that’s frustrating. What do you want to change in your walking?

Because you’re doing what you’ve been told should help, right? The issue is this:

If your body is already compensating, walking more just repeats that compensation pattern.

And over time, your body gets better at doing exactly that, compensating. The question remains, what is it you want to change during walking?

The Science Behind It (In Simple Terms)

Your body is incredibly efficient. It adapts to whatever you do most often. Movement becomes more energy-efficient over time — meaning your body learns to perform it with less effort. That sounds like a good thing. But it also means this:

If you are moving in a way that is imbalanced or protective, your body becomes more efficient at that pattern too.

So instead of improving, you become better at compensating.

That’s why more steps don’t always lead to better outcomes — even if you’re doing something like the #Try20 Challenge every day.

“If Your Body Is Compensating, Walking More Just Reinforces the Problem”

This is the piece most people are missing. Pain changes how your body moves. You might:

These changes are your body trying to protect you. But if they’re not addressed, they become your new normal. And walking — because it’s repetitive — reinforces them.

What I See All the Time

When I watch people walk, I’m not looking at steps. I’m looking at patterns and very often I see:

People walking as if they’ve just stood up from a chair

Or people telling me:
“I can’t move much because I’m in pain — if I do more, it will hurt more.” That belief is understandable. But it’s not always accurate.

Pain, Fear, and Confidence

For most people, it’s not just physical. There are two big things underneath it:

Fear
and
loss of confidence in their body

If movement has hurt before, your body learns to avoid it. So you move less, reducing strength. Or you move cautiously or you may stop altogether. But avoiding movement doesn’t solve the problem. It just reduces your options.

What Actually Needs to Change

The answer isn’t to push harder and it’s not to stop moving either. It’s to change how your body is moving. This is where my work starts. Before I ask someone to walk more — even something as simple as 20 minutes a day — I look at:

Because when those things improve, movement becomes safer and more effective.

Why Alignment Matters When You Walk

Alignment isn’t about standing up straight or holding yourself rigid. It’s about how your body is organised when you move. Using exercise therapy to stack your body into a supportive position will create efficiency in your movement avoiding strain. When you’ve found that well aligned position, strengthening into that position is essential. This way you have mobilised and then strengthen to limit your pain.

When alignment is better:

And most importantly: Your body doesn’t feel like it’s fighting itself anymore. That’s when walking starts to help rather than hinder.

This Is Where Movement Therapy Differs From General Fitness

Most fitness advice focuses on what to do. Walk more. Move more. Do your steps. But it rarely looks at how your body is functioning.

Movement therapy is different. It looks at:

Because if you don’t change the pattern, you don’t change the outcome.

Walking Can Be the Start of Your Solution

The #Try20 Challenge is a great place to begin.

It gives you structure, it builds consistency, it gets you moving. But to really see results, you need to combine it with better, more aligned movement. When your body is aligned properly, walking becomes one of the most powerful tools you have.

It helps you:

But the key is this: You don’t start by doing more, you start by doing it better.

Final Thought

Walking or movement is not the problem it’s also not the full solution either.

Your starting point is to pay attention to how your body is moving while you move.

So take on the #Try20 Challenge if it feels right for you. But don’t just focus on doing it every day.

Start with your alignment. Improve how your body moves. Then build from there. In a 2 hour Honest Body Assessment you will receive all the right information you need to walk well in good alignment to eliminate your pain.

That’s how you move away from pain and back into confidence.

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