Be kind, rewind: is backwards walking any better than walking forwards?

I call it “the hill of death”: a steep uphill section of dirt road towards the end of an otherwise pleasant and not-too-taxing walk in the scenic Blue Mountains. It’s challenging enough to get up it walking forwards but my friend and I both feel pretty cocky about our fitness this morning, so I suggest we try walking up it backwards.
Within a few metres, my quad and calf muscles are burning, my heart is pounding and I’m regretting the idea. But we persist, and with much huffing and whinging we walk backwards up a 30-metre-long section.
Backwards walking is so hot right now, literally and figuratively. The practice has apparently been common in China for some time but, as so often happens when something is “discovered” by an influencer – in this case, the online fitness coach Ben Patrick, AKA the KneesOverToesGuy – it has suddenly become very popular with parts of the western world.
“You start to see people walking backwards on treadmills in a gym, and … when you see people who look like they’re switched on doing it with intent, I think that also fuelled the fire,” says an exercise physiologist, Jack McNamara, from the University of East London.
There have been a lot of headlines about the benefits of backwards walking, but relatively few well-done clinical studies of the practice. The evidence that does exist suggests backwards walking could help some people and in particular settings. But it’s unlikely we’re going to see popular walking spots looking as though someone hit the rewind button on the remote.
The first group who may yield benefits are those at risk of falls, such as older people or those recovering from conditions such as stroke. Dr Christian Barton, associate professor of physiotherapy at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, says backwards walking challenges the muscles and body in ways we don’t normally experience.
“That can help you to build what we call proprioception, which is essentially how your muscles and your joints communicate with your brain, and how your brain communicates back to them to make sure you don’t fall over,” Barton says.
Falls claim the lives of 14 people aged over 65 every day, and treating fall-related injuries in older Australians costs more than $2.3bn each year. Yet falls can be prevented with relatively simple strategies, which can include backwards walking, says Kim Delbaere, a senior research scientist and expert in falls prevention at Neuroscience Research Australia.
“Walking backwards is not something that we do very often, and so from that point of view, yes, it absolutely does engage different systems and different muscle groups,” Delbaere says. “But it’s not a muscle training exercise, it’s not a strength exercise; it’s more about coordination.”
Delbaere suggests the safest way for people with balance issues to try backwards walking is at home, next to something such as a kitchen bench for support. She recommends first walking carefully forwards, graduating to walking by touching heel to toe – always with one hand on or near the bench – then doing the same thing but backwards.
“You first do it holding on, and then you walk backwards, but with a slightly wider stance to then eventually also on one line, touching heel and toes,” she says. The good thing with backwards walking for falls prevention is even short bursts can make a difference. “You can absolutely break it up in five minutes here, 20 minutes there,” she says, with the goal to reach of two to three hours of falls-prevention exercises each week.
People with knee problems such as osteoarthritis may also gain specific benefits from walking backwards, research suggests. “The burn that you found in your quads is strengthening muscles that are proportionally not as strong, and that’s a good thing for strengthening and stabilising the knee,” McNamara says. “It also can help prevent the injuries: the stronger your knee is, the more robust it is, the less chance you have of injury.”
Backwards walking also places less strain on the knee than forwards walking, Barton says, because the knee isn’t transferring forward over the toes as much, so there’s less compressive force on it. “You still have to have some knee bend, it’s just you sit back more into your hips, then you move into your knee, so it challenges the strength of your hips a little bit more and your thigh muscles a little bit more.”
Online claims of backward walking’s superiority for cardiovascular health and weight loss may be putting the cart before the horse. While McNamara says it is true that walking and running backwards burns slightly more calories than going the same distance facing forwards, “you’re not going to run a marathon going backwards, so it’s a moot point”.
But safely incorporated as part of regular exercise – for example, walking backwards for short stretches on an obstruction-free flat surface such as an oval or up a hill where there are no trip hazards, or in a gym dragging a sled for resistance – backwards walking is a way to spice up an exercise routine, McNamara says.
“It’s the psychological break or the novelty, but it’s not necessarily wasting your time if you do it with purpose and you do it with structure.”