Retro walking is a low impact way to burn calories, strengthen your legs, test your coordination and become more flexible along with reducing certain pains. And it requires standing up straighter than when walking forward.
Various benefits include:
- Engages and strengthens muscles in the abdomen, lower limbs, glutes and back.
- Balance and coordination: research found improved balance and stability in cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. And of course attending to balance and coordination is great as we age.
- It can be good for injuries: Research found parameters and muscle strength in anterior cruciate ligament injury improved significantly.
- Osteoarthritis: one study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that after six weeks of retro walking people with Osteoarthritis in the knee had reduced pain. Research has found improved quadricep strength helped patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis.
- Flexibility: walking backwards stretches hip flexors that get tight from sitting. It also stretches the hamstrings. Increased flexibility can assist various pains.
- Improved gait: retro walking is a way to tap into your neuromuscular programming and work through range of motion restriction. Relief may just require 20 or 30 feet taken often enough.
Where to walk: walk anywhere you find comfortable of course. If you would like a support option, so as not to end up as in the image above, using a treadmill with side handles is helpful. Enjoy mixing it up!
Other sources include: The Brief Health – 5 Reasons to Start Walking Backwards, Angela Haupt, Time magazine August 5, 2024
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay