Learning the catwalk: 5 tips to start walking in high heels with grace

Last week there was an event every sissy girl should have been truly excited about. I’m talking, of course, about the return of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after 6 years of absence. Moreover, for the first time ever it featured transgender models, Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani. Wouldn’t it be grand if a sissy joined them as well in ruffled lace lingerie and 6-inch stripper heels? I wouldn’t miss that! Anyway, the grace, the style, the aesthetics, the wings, the WALK – if all that is not a feminisation inspiration then I don’t know what is. Watching those girls demolish the runway with strides full of overarching femme power, made us think that it’s about time our sissy girls start learning the catwalk. Or at the very least, master the art of walking in high heels with grace. So, girls, get your ankles ready, they are about to receive some proper runway training.

1. Train your calves, arches and balls of your feet

Every training must start with a warm-up and stretch, and high heels training is not an exception. Your calves, the balls of your feet and your arches will have to endure a lot during a long day in high heels, so you must implement exercises in your daily routine to prepare for it. 

The first most important exercise might be the simplest one and that is calf raises. Stand on the stairs or a high enough step on the balls of your feet and start raising yourself up with the strength of your calves. It can be done either at home or at the gym, but it’s important to do at least 100 raises per day or divide it into 4 sets of 25. This light but “drying” exercise will not make you gain calf muscles but will only make them look sharper and sexier in heels, with the prominent muscle lines appearing through hosiery, for example. But most importantly, it will prepare your calves for the stress of constant muscle pressure, that is walking in heels.

Speaking of pressure, let’s talk about the balls of your feet. Ask any woman, what the hardest part of walking in heels is, and she will instantly tell you – the pain in the balls of your feet. Don’t get scared, though, it’s not an unbearable one, but if you plan to catwalk the runway all night long you better learn to tolerate it. Luckily, there are exercises for it too. Here you’ll be able to touch upon the ballet fantasies I know some of you girls have. Have you ever seen girls doing Elevé & Relevé in ballet classes? Elevé is when you rise up from straight legs to the balls of your feet.

And Relevé is when you bend your knees and then rise up to the balls of your feet. Just like the gif below shows.

That’s what you must be doing at least 50 times each per day. You can do that in the shower or while you’re doing your chores. To earn some extra femininity points you can raise your hands above your head, like ballet girls would do – it really helps with the posture. But your prime goal here is to train the balls of your feet as they will have to carry most of your weight while walking in heels.

And lastly, there are arches. I don’t need to tell you that long high arches are prime examples of femininity in culture, from pinup girls to model photoshoots. So you must start working on stretching those arches, especially considering that they are so important for a proper balance in heels. And it’s fairly easy to do. Find a steady heavy counterweight, like a sofa or a cabinet or a piano, somewhere you can put your feet under and, well, put your feet under it, straighten your knees and stretch those muscles until they hurt. 5-10 minutes per day will be enough for you to see the results after a while, with the results being high feminine arches you can easily bend for walking in the highest of heels.

2. Select appropriate beginner heels

Now that we’re done with exercises, your calves are toned up, the balls of your feet are ready for the pressure and your arches are stretched, we need to find you a pair of heels to start your catwalking journey in. It’s very tempting for a sissy girl to aim high straight away, however, as much as choosing a pair of 5-inch stilettos for your first pair of heels might do your hornyness levels good, it certainly won’t contribute to your actual skills. 

At the start of your practice, you will mostly be learning the balance, posture, weight distribution, movement of your feet and how your body adjusts to it. For that, you’ll need the practice to be firm and consistent. Therefore, the two major things you should prioritise when selecting your first pair of heels are: 1) a steady heel; and 2) a steady outsole – or the platform where the balls of your feet land. And what it mostly means is that all the sexy stilettos, sandals and stripper heels are out of the question for now. Approximately 3-inch heels will be enough, and the wider the heel is the better. The heels you choose must also be closed or half-closed (no sandal straps) because to learn the balance of the catwalk your foot must stay firm. Ideally, they should also be platform heels because platforms somewhat redistribute the weight along the whole length of your foot. 

Here are 5 beginner-friendly high heels in our store that will be perfect for the catwalk practice: 

Dolly Heels
Chunky High Heels
Crossdresser Heels
Secretary High Heels
Summer High Heels

3. Create a feminine posture for balance

Here we enter the most crucial part of a perfect catwalk stride. It’s gonna need lots of practice from you girls, but I know you will enjoy it. At least, because it will involve some book & stick training you’ve definitely fantasised about in your sissy dreams.

Are you wearing your new heels, by the way?

The first thing you’re going to do is find a book and a stick that’s twice the length of your tummy. Then you need to stand tall, put your hand on your head and pull up the imaginary string from the top of your head upwards. This must put your shoulders up, extend your core, and your neck. Now roll your shoulders backwards and down while keeping the head still and straight. Put the book on your head.

Then take the stick, roll the shoulders up, then down and back again and curve your core so that your butt is arched backwards and up. Put the stick above your butt and fix it there between your elbows, as the girls have it in the gif below.

Your forearms should now be perpendicular to your body, and the palms of your hands should be loose. Your head should be looking straight, with your neck extended against your shoulders, which are rolled backwards, exposing your chest, while your core is arched backwards with your buttocks balancing your rolled back shoulders.

That is the basics of the posture you must always uphold while walking in heels. For that to happen, you will need to find your balance in that posture. Therefore, you must start walking! At least 30 minutes per day. Don’t worry about the leg movement for now, we’ll talk about it later. At the start you must get used to having your chest out, butt and shoulders pushed backwards, neck extended, and head straight. When you move you must keep your core stable – hence the book, and the arches of your body bent – hence the stick. Every time the book falls from your head, you must add 2 minutes to your walking practice. And every time the stick stops pushing against the inner side of your elbows you should readjust your butt and your shoulders so that the arches in your core are preserved.

Now let’s talk about how we can make this walk of yours truly pretty.

4. Move your feet heels to toe and your hips up & down

It’s quite tempting to start swaying your hips as soon as you apply the correct catwalk posture, and fashion models do add sway to their stride, but first, you must get used to the natural curve of your body that appears when you move your high-heeled legs in the correct way.

The natural flow of your feet should be from heel to toe. This means when you place your foot you should place it on your heel and then elegantly roll it towards your sole as if you are walking in balloons. This motion might be counter-intuitive when you are used to walking flat-footed. But don’t overdo it, do not reveal the sole of your shoe too much, neither when placing the foot on the ground, nor when raising it. For this to happen most naturally, you should aim to stretch and bend your ankle inward when moving from heel to toe and relax it when you raise it.

Secondly, it’s crucial to learn the transitioning motion. Not that one, ladies! I’m talking elegantly raising your toes when you place your other foot. This motion distantly resembles a horse raising its foot in how your ankle should be relaxed and the arches of your feet should be fully bent, extended and facing downwards. 

Now let’s talk about the hips. Once you start applying the tips above you will notice that all the momentum for your movement should come from not your ankles, not your buttocks, not your pelvis – but your hips. Mostly that happens because for your stride to be truly natural you must use not the front leg to pull your legs forward but rather your pivot foot to push your whole body forward. I’ll try to explain it this way: when you raise your foot for the next step, this foot should not be the one that carries your weight forward, it must only aim to be placed in the correct way – on the heel, whereas your pivot leg, the leg you’re still standing on, should be the one to move your weight and your body forward by the natural momentum of your hips from up to down, as if the pivot leg is piercing the ground. Hence, the sway, girls!

The hips are moving not side to side, as you might have thought, but rather up and down as you distribute your weight to your pivot leg, first to step and find balance (hip up) and then to lean on and push your whole body forward (hip down).

To further extend this swaying motion, it’s important to walk in a straight line but I guess you already knew that. So draw an imaginary line across your room and pace your foot directly in front of the other. Once you’re comfortable walking like that, you can even add a runaway spice-up to your practice and cross your legs while you walk – putting the foot not directly in front of the other but further to the side. This is one of the ways runaway girls add sway to their walk.

5. Practice, Practice & Practice 

Now that we’ve walked through the basics let’s compose a daily practice routine: 

1. Calf raises: 100 per day
2. Elevé & Relevé: 50 & 50 per day
3. Arches stretches: 10 minutes per day
4. Walking in a straight line with correct leg & hip motion, a book on your head and a stick behind your back: 30 minutes per day

This should cement the stride and the posture necessary for you to take the next steps. To further elevate your training, I suggest you wear a tight skirt or leggings. They will add the necessary feminine feel required for you to loosen up your muscles while keeping them in tone in all of the right places. A corset might help with the posture as well, but it might be quite a chore to put it on every day. The book and the stick should remain in your practice for at least 2 months while you walk, though. This might sound a lot but, girl, if only you knew how much models practise like that in modelling schools.

Should we talk about motivation? Well, if I know my sissies well, a more feminine outfit will certainly help you with that. Getting the right feminine mindset is certainly necessary for any catwalk practice, and the more female energy you feel within, the more elegant your walk becomes. You must feel fierce, beautiful and confident. But on top of that, you can use the following notion to keep up with the training: beauty comes at a cost, and there aren’t many things more beautiful in life than a woman in towering heels confident in her walk. Or a sissy, for that matter. And believe me, if you keep up with the routine above for at least a couple of months, you will master even the highest of heels with grace any woman would be jealous of.

Once the correct motions and your feminine poise become second nature to you, you might want to elevate your catwalk to a higher level: practise your femme fatale facial expression, do the turns and half-turns, model pauses and dress displays. Maybe we’ll discuss it some other time. So far though, you should practise the basics as diligently as any other sissy activity in your training. You might not be preparing to actually walk the runway at the Victoria’s Secret show yet, but if you want to see the results at least distantly resembling the energy Alex Consani’s stride exudes then get ready to walk the walk, sugar!