• Question: How many bones do we use when walking??????????

    Asked by katier to clairemarieroberts, Faye, Martin, Mus, Pete on 20 Apr 2012.
    • Photo: Pete Etchells

      Pete Etchells answered on 20 Apr 2012:

      Great question, Katie! I guess the technical answer is pretty much all of them – all 60 bones in your legs, plus the bones in your body to connect your spine and pelvis to coordinate the leg movements (that’s another 52 or so). Of course, moving your arms makes it much easier to walk, so if we include those that’s another 60. And of course, to walk in the first place, you need to engage your brain, which is in your skull – that has 28 cranial, facial and ear bones!

    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 20 Apr 2012:

      Hi Katier

      Yep Pete does it again 🙂

      When you are standing still you are actually using the muscles of your body to keep the bones of your body upright !

      So when you walk you will be using even more muscle to keep your body upright and moving forward ! or backward depending on how you want to walk 🙂

    • Photo: Faye Didymus

      Faye Didymus answered on 20 Apr 2012:

      Lots and lots! As Martin says, you use the muscles in your body when you’re walking. These are attached to your bones with soft tissues such as tendons and ligaments. When our muscles contract or relax, they make our bones move, which makes us walk, jump, run etc! We have 206 bones in our body and somewhere between 650 and 850 muscles!! That’s a lot, right!? When we’re walking we’re using a lot of these because our torso (stomach, chest, and back) help us to stand upright, we may swing our arms a little, and obviously move our legs. When you think about all of the different things involved in walking, it’s amazing how we can do it without even thinking about it!

    • Photo: clairemarieroberts

      clairemarieroberts answered on 23 Apr 2012:

      As Pete says we have 26 bones in each foot, and another four in each leg, making a total of 60 in the direct parts of our body that are involved in walking.

      But, we need to consider all of the other bones that hold us upright allowing us to walk, the tendons that attach our muscles to our bones in order to move those bones and the ligaments that connect all of our bones together!

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