Skip to main content

Fitness buffs are walking backwards — what are the benefits?

Burn calories and strengthen your quads and core by walking backwards

person walking
Tobi / Pexels

Singer and dancer Michael Jackson’s moonwalk wasn’t the only reason people tried walking backward. Fitness buffs are walking backward to improve physical and mental well-being, burn calories, strengthen the quadricep muscles, and more. It turns out there’s quite a history behind walking backward, and it’s been used for centuries in cultural rituals and martial arts, particularly in East Asia. Walking backward or retro-walking is trending on social media. Let’s look at the benefits and how you can walk backward safely.

What are the benefits of walking backward?

Strong quad muscles
Anastase Maragos / Unsplash

Walking forward as you normally would provides numerous benefits, such as burning calories and improving your mood and heart health. Walking backward also provides several unique advantages, such as:

  • Enhance your mental health.
  • Sharpen your brain and concentration.
  • Strengthen your core muscles, calves, quads, and ankles.
  • Improve your balance and coordination.
  • Burn more calories compared to walking forward.
  • Improve your joint health and posture.
  • Work the same muscles as regular walking in different ways, including your calves, hamstrings, and quads.
  • Fire up other muscles in addition and target more of your gluteal muscles, quads, and hip flexors compared to normal walking.
  • Your energy expenditure is significantly higher, so you’ll elevate your heart rate and get cardiovascular benefits.
Recommended Videos

How long should you walk backward?

Man on treadmill with sleeveless shirt in gym
Olly / Pexels

You can try retro-walking for two minutes or longer. The most important thing is keeping safety in mind to avoid falling. If you’re a beginner, integrate a minute or two of walking backward into your regular workout routine. You can try retro-walking for longer durations as you advance.

Safety tips for walking backward

Man on treadmill
Lightfield Studios / Adobe Stock

Keep these safety tips in mind if you’re considering walking backward:

  • You’ll need to maintain strong muscles to be able to walk backward safely, and strength training is one of the best ways to build strength and muscle mass.
  • Choose an open area where there aren’t any obstacles, and you have plenty of space.
  • Avoid crowded areas.
  • Start slowly with just a minute or two until you become more proficient.
  • Start on the treadmill holding the handles at a slow speed.
  • A slower speed is important because your backward walking pace won’t be as fast as your normal forward walking pace.
  • Try to avoid uneven terrain and, ideally, use a treadmill or find a flat paved walking path or short grass.
  • Familiarize yourself with the terrain before you start.

Walking backward is unfamiliar to you, so it stimulates your brain and encourages you to focus. You’ll burn more calories and enhance your spatial awareness, memory, and concentration. Plus, you’ll be much sturdier on your feet when you’ve mastered the art of walking in reverse.

Steph Green
Steph Green is a content writer specializing in healthcare, wellness, and nutrition. With over ten years of experience, she…
Topics
Is working out at the same time everyday better for your heart health? New study
Is consistency key when it comes to getting the most benefits for your heart?
Two people doing squat exercises

Some people like to stick to a rigid schedule and work out at the same time every day or at the same time every week. Penciling workout sessions into our busy calendars can help many of us stay more consistent and get closer to achieving our fitness goals.

I tend to do a mix of scheduled workouts and spontaneous sessions, like a jog around my neighborhood and a little strength training at home. While I don’t currently have a gym membership, I do use my at-home gym machine, dumbbells, and a yoga mat, along with going jogging and doing bodyweight exercises like lunges and squats.

Read more
Master yoga trainer shares the best tips, poses, and flows for beginners
If you don't know where to start with this ancient meditative movement practice, yoga expert Veronica Najera shares her tips with The Manual.
Veronica Najera yoga instructor

When I first tried yoga, I was looking for pain relief and a way to maintain and improve flexibility. I spent countless hours researching wellness and alternative, holistic medicine and therapies, and the more I heard about yoga, the more I wanted to try it. So, I bought a thick yoga mat, started up a beginner yoga DVD I bought at my local Target, and copied what the yoga instructor was doing on screen. I’ve always liked stretching, and the first thing I noticed about this meditative movement practice was how good it felt to stretch my body, even in the most introductory yoga poses like sun salutation and forward fold. 

Not only that, I always finish even my shorter yoga sessions in a calmer and more focused state, ideal for a productive day ahead. I’ve used yoga for pain relief, flexibility, meditation, and developing strength for years now. There are different styles and intensities, and yoga has a long and interesting history originating in India and passed down for thousands of years.

Read more
Researchers say this vibrant veggie juice could be the secret to better workouts
Could this colorful juice help you power through more reps?
man and woman working out taking break drinking sports drink exercise stretch

After studying and writing about nutrition for almost a decade now, I've learned about the many benefits of eating colorful fruits and veggies. I also experienced it myself as it helped simmer down inflammation and pain associated with my inflammatory autoimmune bone condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis. When Dr. Terry Wahls says “eat the rainbow,” she doesn’t mean Skittles. 

These deeply colored fruits and veggies include polyphenols and antioxidants that researchers have associated with many benefits, including improving blood pressure, insulin resistance, lipid profiles, and systemic inflammation. In a recent study, researchers sought to determine whether drinking beetroot juice could enhance power, strength, endurance, and delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS. Let’s check out this interesting research.

Read more