'8 things I learned from walking backwards every day for 30 days'
Going to the gym is the one time for me to get out of my head and into my body, so I don’t take much notice of the people around me. Something that’s been catching my attention recently, though, is everyone backwards walking. My TikTok feed is full of it, but it’s not often you see a social media trend make it into the real world, so why is it becoming so popular?
Performance and health coach Robin Laird decided to find out for herself, sharing her findings on her YouTube channel.
‘There was only one rule I gave myself for this challenge, and that was that every single day, I had to spend 30 minutes walking backwards,’ she says in the video. ‘It didn't matter if it was indoors, outdoors, uphill, downhill, around my dad's kitchen (which I definitely did in the middle of a snowstorm). I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.’
Here’s exactly what happened, including how backwards walking could help you, and the science-backed pros and cons.
8 things I learned from walking backwards
1. You’ll work your muscles differently
‘In days two through four, my glutes, my thighs and my heels were all very sore to me,' says Robin. 'That is just a sign that I'm working different muscles than I normally am when I'm walking around forwards, and that's great. The heels especially were interesting.
‘I think in this first week I was surprised by how sore my thighs and my glutes were as well, because I am someone who does a lot of walking. On a regular basis, I walk between 15 to 20,000 steps a day on average, and I also do yoga, Pilates and full-body exercises, so to get that soreness in new places is kind of exciting.
‘It means that I'm tapping into different muscle groups than I normally am and that was probably the biggest theme of week one: soreness, which to me is good.
‘In terms of which muscles you will work, I learned that we're essentially using many of the same muscles but we're using those muscles differently. Backwards walking involves more eccentric control of our muscles by lengthening them, versus when we walk forward, our muscle activity involves more concentric control by shortening them. So it makes a lot of sense that doing both of these activities would give us a more comprehensive workout for the muscles in our legs and feet.’
2. Going barefoot might be more comfortable
‘Feeling my muscles working differently made me want to try more barefoot walking so that I could really pay attention to how I was landing my feet,' Robin says. 'By the end of week one, I discovered my favourite way to practice backwards walking is by walking indoors on my little walking pad and doing it barefoot, so that I can really pay attention to how I am placing my feet in every single moment that I walk.
'I was never super excited by the concept of barefoot shoes until this experiment, because I could really feel the difference when I was walking backwards barefooted versus when I was walking backwards in shoes. I feel like I'm getting more of the benefits and less of the pain when I don't wear shoes doing this.
‘I don't know if it's because my shoes are worn out in a way that is complimentary to forwards walking and then when I'm backwards walking, the way that the soles are worn in is not really working. I don't know, but my heel pain is now completely gone and I really like doing backwards walking indoors on my walking pad.’
3. It will take much longer to hit your daily step goal
‘In week two,' adds Robin, 'I really started to settle into a routine on my treadmill and my bare feet, and it was pretty easy to incorporate in my day-to-day because I do have a walking pad at home. What did become clear to me is that backwards walking is so incredibly slow compared to forwards walking and so if you are someone who counts steps (I believe steps is a bit of a vanity metric; it doesn't actually matter how many steps you take a day, it's about building habits of movement throughout your life), I noticed that for me personally, half an hour of backwards walking gets me about 1,200 steps, whereas half an hour of forwards walking gets me about 3,000 steps. It's more than twice as slow to walk backwards than it is to walk forwards.’
4. You won't be able to keep up with friends and family
‘Something to keep in mind if you do like to walk with other people, I found I was way too slow to walk with my mum and my husband, and it was hard to walk with my dog,' Robin warns. 'But I do think if there's someone in your life, like a grandmother, who is a very slow walker, this could actually be a great way to walk with them because you're still able to walk at their pace but get a more intense workout.’
5. It can help lower-back pain
‘I struggle with lordosis, which is kind of a hollowed back position where I have a frontward tilt to my pelvis,' explains Robin. 'Usually, that's due to some sort of muscle imbalances and I feel like this activity takes some of that imbalance away and takes away the lower back pain a bit. I don't know if this is entirely in my head, but when I took a break and then reintroduced it I do feel like that difference is more noticeable.’
6. Ten minutes a day is enough
‘Thirty minutes of backwards walking a day to me seems a little bit unnecessary,' Robin says. 'I've learned from this experience that backwards walking can help you activate different muscles of your legs and also muscles in the feet, but you don't need to do 30 minutes a day to get these benefits.
‘Going forward after this 30-day experiment, I'm going to start backwards walking for just 10 minutes a day with a weighted belt, and probably only do this maybe tops five times a week. I'm just going to walk for 10 minutes with my weighted belt on so that I can still activate those same muscles and get those benefits but do it in a much more efficient manner [by using the weighted belt].’
7. It can help you stay more present, mentally
‘I really liked the cognitive load of this activity, as it does require a little bit more presence and attention than walking forwards,' says Robin. 'I think that's meditative; I think it brings me to the present moment.’
8. Walking outdoors might be more fun
‘[While I’ll continue with 10 minutes per day], I would much rather spend 30 minutes walking outside or with a loved one than walking by myself backwards on a treadmill in my house,' says Robin. 'So I still want to leave plenty of time for my favourite kind of forwards walking in my life, and just really get the most bang for my time with the backwards walking by doing a weighted 10-minute session each day.
‘I just got a weighted belt from Amazon, where you can take out these little metal plates. I think my one is sold out, but it's hard to go wrong with a weighted belt as long as it looks comfy and durable. You can also make some weighted walks yourself, like putting on a backpack with a bunch of water bottles inside.’
The verdict
‘All in all, this challenge – backwards walking for 30 minutes every day – is not something I'm going to continue with,' concludes Robin. 'I'm going to do 10-minute backwards walking weighted sessions several times a week, and I think my bases will be covered.
‘Granted, backwards walking is supposedly very good for knee rehabilitation, and I think that if I had really bad knees, I might have noticed more of a difference, but my knees are okay. And in addition to all the different types of physical activity I do, I also stand on my full-body vibration plate for 10 minutes every single day which is amazing for joint health and definitely helps my body recover from exercise more easily. I think because I'm already in a pretty good place with my body, maybe the difference of adding in backwards walking is not as great as it might be for some people.
‘Overall, I think this has been a net positive experience. It hasn't been the most life-changing thing ever, but I feel pretty good about it, and in general I just love these little tweaks to walking.’
Is walking backwards good for you? Pros and cons
‘Now that we’ve gone through my personal experience of backwards walking, I want to take a little moment to dive into the physiology of what's happening while we're walking backwards,' Robin adds.
‘I purposely didn't want to read too much about backwards walking before trying it myself, because I didn't want it to affect my observations in any way. But looking at the research now, I really am pleased to see a lot of studies supporting the practice of backwards walking, including several benefits I see coming up consistently.’
Pros of backwards walking
1. It can reduce lower-back pain
‘Studies show backwards walking leads to greater activation of the lumbar paraspinal muscles compared to forwards walking, which may be one reason for its rehabilitation potential in chronic lower back pain.’
2. It can ease knee pain
‘Other research proves backwards walking can also help support knee rehabilitation, with notable improvements for knee osteoarthritis specifically.’
3. It can boost balance
‘Science shows that backwards walking can also improve balance and posture control as shown in many different subject groups.’
4. It can improve your cardiovascular system
‘Backwards walking can help improve your cardiovascular condition, because it challenges the cardiovascular system more than forwards walking, according to science.’
Cons of backwards walking
‘I did find one article in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation arguing that backwards walking is dangerous and should not be practiced unnecessarily. This article details two cases involving people falling and getting injured.
‘I think this is a great reminder of why we should always work with experts, doctors and physical therapists to ensure that we're doing what's right for our body and our unique circumstance. Perhaps in one person's case, the risk of a fall may be too great, and you would want to avoid walking backwards.
‘Take this video as a jumping off point to talk to the experts in your life and see if this is a safe activity for you to be practicing.’
More on walking
‘I walked 25k steps per day for a year, here are 12 things I’ve learned’
‘I walked for 30 minutes every day for a month, here’s what happened’
Is walking good exercise? 3 ways to make it worthwhile, from a top trainer
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