No this isn’t an April Fools story (in September!?) but some boffins believe that walking backwards is good for you!
They say it places less strain on the knees and can help with coordination – as long as you do it with structure and purpose.
Apparently backward walking, also known as ‘retro-walking’, has been common in China for some time and now the Western world is getting hear about it due to online fitness coach/influencer call Ben Patrick, AKA the KneesOverToesGuy.
There have been a lot of headlines about the benefits of backwards walking, but relatively few well-done clinical studies of the practice.
“Backward walking is an underrated way to engage your glutes, shins, and the muscles in your feet and ankles”, says Joe Meier, a Minnesota-based personal trainer and author of Lift for Life.
Meier reckons it mitigates the impact of each step, reducing the force exerted on the knees and lower back.
Meanwhile, your calf muscles will need to work opposite of how they usually do.
When you walk forward, your calf contracts concentrically, which means the muscle gets shorter, explains Meier.
When you’re going in reverse, your calf muscle contracts the opposite way and gets longer as it bears your body weight. That switch-up can be a valuable way to improve your fitness.
We can see that. You certainly can’t walk backwards fast so you’d walk carefully, and with purpoise.
Walking backward also requires you to stand up straighter than you do when walking forward. By reversing your stride, you’ll create a new challenge for the muscles in the abdomen, lower limbs, and back.
Still, is it going to get a following over here? Yeah, nah!