Julien Balbontin first started walking backward to switch things up in her exercise routine. But when the 31-year-old started Olympic weightlifting as a hobby, she began regularly seeing a chiropractor to help keep her body in tip-top shape. One of the exercises recommended by her chiropractor? Walking backward, which keeps her joints healthy despite the pressure from lifting. “I haven’t rolled my ankles since starting weightlifting,” Balbontin says of the common injury. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
You might’ve seen the videos online: gym-goers walking backward on a treadmill, proclaiming the health benefits of “retro-walking,” or walking backward. While the internet isn’t always a credible source of health information, walking backward (on a treadmill, on the ground or as Balbontin does it, on an elliptical machine) is an exercise associated with numerous health benefits.
Walking itself is a functional exercise that easily fits into our everyday lives, says Kimberley Gammage, a professor of kinesiology at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. However, differences in biomechanics (the way our bodies work to move us) means that walking backward piles on additional health benefits.
This is especially true for those with osteoarthritis or other joint problems, says Kara Patterson, a senior scientist at the KITE Research Institute at the University Health Network in Toronto. Patterson focuses on rehabilitation science and improving the lives of those with disabilities and illnesses, as well as people who are aging. “Retro-walking can decrease knee pain, improve [patients’] daily function and reduce disability.”
Here are four reasons why you should incorporate walking backward into your exercise routine, and how to get started.
It improves balance
One of the biggest benefits of switching up your walking direction is the balance boost it provides. According to Gammage, we rely on our vision as we walk to avoid trips and falls. Walking backward forces us to rely on our body’s other senses in order to maintain balance, ultimately strengthening these systems and improving co-ordination. Proprioception, the ability to sense where in space our bodies are, is integral to maintaining balance, and this sense is stretched when retro-walking. This is especially important for seniors. As we age, our reflexes and eyesight weaken, making us more prone to poor balance and falling. By challenging some of the other balance-providing senses, walking backward trains us to be more co-ordinated to avoid falls.
Plus, retro-walking improves strength in your hips. “When you improve strength, you also improve balance,” Patterson explains. “When you start walking forward again, it can lead to increased stride length and walking speed,” she adds – two indications of better balance.
It works your muscles differently
Retro-walking requires you to move your joints in reverse, which engages a different set of muscles than the ones that are used when strolling forward, says Gammage. Muscles such as your hamstrings, hip flexors and calves are being lengthened and stretched, increasing flexibility.
Walking backward also strengthens your quads (the muscles on the front of your thigh) and glutes, because those muscles are working harder when walking backward. One study published in 2019 in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders found that people who walked backward three times a week for six weeks ended up with improved quad strength. That’s because as you walk backward, you engage your quads to straighten your legs. As for your glutes, walking backward means repeatedly contracting those muscles even more as you move, strengthening them over time.
Walking backward also engages your lumbar muscles in the lower back. Not only does this stretch out this notoriously sore spot, which could help with chronic lower back pain, it strengthens the lower spine, leading to added stability, better posture and balance. When you extend your leg back to step, you activate important muscles in your lower back to stay upright, says Stacy Irvine, co-owner of Totum Life Sciences, a boutique fitness and health care centre in Toronto.
It can be easier on your joints
Walking backward is a common physical rehab tool to help people recovering from knee injuries. This has to do with how we walk and distribute our weight. “When we walk backwards, the first part of your foot that touches the ground is the toe, compared to the heel, when we walk forward,” Irvine says. That change in step pattern contributes to less force at the knees and therefore decreased pain. Plus, walking backward means more contraction in the hips, which improves the strength of those muscles. Plus, as mentioned before, walking backward strengthens the quads, which work to support the knees.
How to get started
Irvine says the most important part of retro-walking is doing it somewhere safe. She recommends getting started on a treadmill, starting out at a slow speed and working up to a moderate walking pace. “Try to go about two minutes to allow your body to slowly adapt to the changes. Then, gradually extend the amount of time you are spending backwards,” she says. When you’re first getting started, grab onto the treadmill’s side railing for support.
If you don’t have access to a treadmill, Irvine says to find a flat path with an even surface – better yet, a path that you are very familiar with so you can anticipate what’s coming.
Irvine says this is a great group activity. “You can take turns walking backwards and the person facing forward can keep an eye out for obstacles,” she says. “And, it’s fun to carry on a conversation this way because you’re facing each other.”
Once you’re familiar with the feeling of retro-walking, try doing it up a hill. “This accentuates the feeling in all of your posterior muscles and can have an added benefit of working your cardiovascular system at the same time,” Irvine says.
