In Her Heels ….Part Deux

Now that you have your perfect pair of heels, properly padded and ready to go, you need to learn how to do something other than stand and sit in them, right?

Here’s how you begin walking in them, or learning how to for that big ceremony or shindig where you don’t want to fall flat on your face in front of all of these very important people.

WEAR THEM FOR LITTLE AMOUNTS OF TIME TO BEGIN WITH

Start at home.

Are you sitting at your computer surfing the internet? Sitting on the couch watching TV? Doing the dishes?

Wear your heels, and just sit or stand in them a bit. Get used to the feeling of them on your feet, and let them mold to your feet a bit and stretch slightly.

DO NOT wear them out before breaking them in a bit around the house, or for a few hours while out running errands with a car and a pair of back up flats just in case they get too painful.

Go slowly at first and wear them for short amounts of time.

GRAB A FULL LENGTH MIRROR

If you don’t have one.. you’ll just have to imagine what you look like.

Shoulders up, head back, chest out.

Please, NO SLOUCHING.

That will create what I call the Cavewoman Walk.

Walk straight, like a proud peacock puffing up their chest. It may look weird to you, but if you are a natural sloucher, you will need to orient your body so that your spine is long and lean as if you are on a string.

If you don’t stand up straight, not only will you walk like a Cavewoman and make other women cringe watching you, you will also have problems walking because you won’t have the correct gravity to keep you graceful.

If you have a mirror, put it at the end of a room, go to the other end, and start walking towards it, and walking away, while glancing behind you.

Check the motion of your legs and body.

Keep your feet pointing forward, and your legs straight, but not stiff. Give a little bend to the knee and hips, and imagine yourself gliding with a STRAIGHT back.

TRY WEARING THEM ON SOFT AND HARD SURFACES

This will help you understand how your heels twist or bend on hard or soft surfaces. Avoid grass because the heel (if thin and spiky) will poke into the ground and become scuffed.

Try walking on sidewalks, in stores for hard surfaces and for soft surfaces, try a rubber mat or carpet to check where you tend to slide on different surfaces.

The worst, is oiled or slick marble. This is why I recommend putting those Sole Stopperz things from Foot Petals on the bottom of your heels, so that it gives you a bit of grip, as some shoes are very slippery.

WALK HEEL-TO-TOE

Stand up straight.

Lift one leg, and put it in front of you with the heel angled towards the ground.

Check at what angle you are naturally putting your foot down at.

I’ll bet you are trying to put your heel down too far for the height of the heel. You have to pretend you are walking in flats, but as if you are taking smaller steps, and shorter strides, to account for the height of the heel.

Here are 2 examples of right and wrong angles of when you begin to take your first step

In VERY high heels 3.5″ or more, you will need to angle your foot and the heel of the shoe closer to your standing foot, as you will need to place the angle of the heel on the ground, and then propel yourself forward so that the entire foot ends up on the floor.

Repeat to yourself: Heel, Toe. Heel, Toe. Heel, Toe.

Place as little pressure as you can on the heel that you are stepping out with, by keeping the other stationary foot on the ground, but lifted onto the ball of the foot.

TRAIN YOUR FEET FIRST WITHOUT WEARING ANY HEELS

Stretch your foot. Do foot-y exercises like sitting with your feet on tiptoes and your heel slightly raised.

I admit, I do have a higher than normal arch (called the Ballet Shoe Arch by my friend), so higher heels are not as big of a stretch for me, because my arch is naturally accustomed to higher heels.

But if you are more flat footed, massage your feet a bit.

Point and flex your toes.

Rotate your ankles.

Try and crack your toes by scrunching them.

All of this will help relax your foot, and not make it so tense when you finally slip them into the heels.

Another trick is to try walking around the house on tiptoes, to get the feeling of what it’s like in heels. This helps you develop a stronger sense of balance and get some muscle goin’ on the ankles.

This is especially helpful if you tend to be a hard striker with your heel, and you find a lot of your shoes tend to wear out at the heel first, and you may be prone to what I call the Cavewoman Heel Stomp.

Your foot should be angled to take the next step with your heel striking the ground first, not the whole shoe at the same time.

If you really find yourself bringing your heel down hard on the ground when you walk in flats, you’ve got to learn to lessen up on that, and take a gentler step.

Tiptoeing around the house might help.

AND JUST TO SCARE YOU

Heels can go up to 6″ or 7″, they’re called Ballet Heels and DAMN they are scary.

*shiver*

I am not entering THAT frontier, thankyouverymuch.

PICTURE TUTORIAL

To take your first step, lift your heel but keep the other foot steady, and that lifted heel on the ground.

Next, with your heel lifted, keep that foot’s toebox grounded, but angled forwards slightly (this is where your toes begin to scrunch as you take your step) to shift the weight to the next foot.

Now the weight should be entirely on the other foot being solidly on the ground, while the other foot is about to take off as it is almost on tiptoes.

That’s it!
Now you can work towards wearing these gorgeous Miu Miu whipstitched pumps that I am STILL lusting after.

Hey.. that heel doesn’t look so bad 🙂