It Sounds Crazy, But Walking Backwards Is Really, Really Good For You

It's completely free to walk and you don't need any equipment or memberships.

We walk for most of the time. Many of us don't remember the benefits of walking for health.

If we stop walking on autopilot and start walking backwards, what will happen? The change of direction may bring health benefits.

It's not necessary for physical activity to be complicated. Even a brisk ten-minute walk a day can deliver a host of health benefits and can count towards the World Health Organization's recommended minimum of 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week.

Many of us don't know that walking is more complex than we think. Our visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems need to be coordinated to stay upright.

Our brains take longer to process the demands of coordinating these systems when we walk backwards. Increased health benefits come from this increased level of challenge.

Walking backwards improves stability and balance. healthy adults and people with knee osteoarthritis can benefit from walking backwards. Walking backwards causes us to take shorter, more frequent steps, which in turn leads to improved muscular endurance for the muscles of the lower legs.

The range of motion for joints and muscles can be altered by adding incline or decline, which can offer pain relief for conditions such as plantar fasciitis.

People with chronic lower back pain may benefit from walking backwards, as it uses more of the muscles supporting the spine.

In patients with neurological conditions or following a stroke, walking backwards has been used to treat balance and walking speed.

The benefits of changing direction are not just therapeutic, they have led researchers to discover other benefits.

It's possible that walking backwards can help us maintain a healthy weight. The amount of energy expenditure when walking backwards is almost 40 percent higher than when walking at the same speed forwards, with one study showing reductions in body fat for women who completed a six week backwards walk.

When we are confident in travelling backwards, we can improve the demands even more. While often studied as a rehabilitation tool, backward running increases the strength of crucial muscles involved with smoothing the knee, which not only carries over to injury prevention but also our ability to generate power and athletic performance.

When we run forwards, we use more energy than when we run backwards. The improvements in running economy are good for experienced runners.

If you can't run backwards because of space limitations, dragging weights is another way to increase the challenge.

The recruitment of the knee extensor muscles is increased by increasing the overall load.

If we're too tired to drag the sledge backwards, the most likely outcome is that the sledge won't move. With lighter weights, this kind of exercise can produce an appropriate level of resistance to stimulation significant improvements in lower limb power, with dragging weights as little as 10 percent of total body weight leading to improved sprint times for young athletes.

How to get started

It is not easy to walk backwards. Adding walking backwards into your exercise regimen is something that can be done.

If you want to be safe, it's best to start indoors, where you won't crash into someone or an open area.

Look over your shoulder instead of contorting your body. Reach back with your big toe and roll through the foot from toe to heel.

Once you become more confident walking backwards, you can begin to speed things up and even transition to a treadmill, as long as you use the guide rails. Light if you use weights. Remember to maintain the integrity of your technique over no more than a 20 meter distance if you want to focus on multiple sets.

Jack McNamara is a lecturer at the university.

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