Virtual Personal Trainer Benefits of Walking Backwards

10 Benefits of walking backwards

1. Knee Health – In 1978 it was found that more pressure is on the knee when it’s over your toes.

This was interpreted as something bad, and the main advice in the college education system became “no knees over toes.” Little was done to further understand the subject.

But walking backward allows you to both strengthen and heal in that position.

The standard ATG advice is 5–10 minutes, which results in tremendous power for your body to heal naturally. This is because you CAN grow and strengthen the structures inside your knee. Compared to muscles, it’s harder to get blood supply deep into the joint.

Walking backward is a solution to the problem of how to start safely rebuilding a knee.

2. Foot Health – With each step, you’re pushing through your toes and loading your foot structures, so an unexpected byproduct for myself and others has been eliminating plantar fasciitis.

Most thigh exercises use a flat foot. This can lead to long term imbalance of foot strength vs upper thigh strength. Walking backward helps you even this out.

3. Lower Leg Health – Things like shin splints and Achilles tendinitis also seem to benefit from walking backward.

Backward walking plus exercises like tibialis raises, FHL calf raises, and KOT calf raises handled it for me, and they’ve never come back.

All that pushing through the feet, with the knee over the toes, has to help, since you’re loading lower leg muscles uniquely compared to traditional leg workouts.

4. Cardio! – As you heal your lower body, you’re able to push harder, and as you push harder… you wind up huffing and puffing!

This is a cool side effect which I appreciate even more now that I’m a parent of two toddlers, with less me-time.

I still do 10 minutes as Step 1 on leg days, and I push hard enough to be sweating and breathing heavily.

5. Leg Strength! – As your knees heal and you increase resistance, the legs power up!

Dragging a sled on turf is a great way to add resistance.

The treadmill at your local gym may have some resistance when not turned on.

In particular, walking backward with resistance on a treadmill  emphasizes the vastus medialis, the teardrop muscle by your knee.

It was once found that you cannot isolate the vastus medialis, meaning when you try to work one of your quad muscles (your four thigh muscles), you work them all.

But years later it was found that you can EMPHASIZE the vastus medialis. When your knee is over your toes, you seem to proportionally develop more of your vastus medialis while still strengthening the rest of your quads.

The vastus medialis is the first muscle that contracts when your knee is under pressure, and having a good ratio of it has been found to equate with less knee pain.

6. Deceleration – Walking backward with resistance allows you to safely improve your ability to go downhill.

In sports, you can experience increased ability to stop on command.

7. Speed It seems that improvement in a knee over toes position allows you to start sprinting faster since your shin can achieve a closer angle to the ground, with greater comfort and strength.

Also, when you approach your top speed, a stronger and healthier knee seems to add some additional spring.

8. Jumping – I had given up on trying to dunk.

After significant progress, I found out I could dunk again. I was shocked. It didn’t feel like real life.

But the knee is the #1 jump barrier.

So when you turn a weak knee into a strength, you change your potential for jumping.

Jumping is the most injurious knee activity because you’re directly experiencing impact — both at takeoff and landing — with your knee over your toes.

Now jumping feels so comfortable. 

9. Knee Bulletproofing – Walking backward is a gateway exercise to greater ability of the knee.

Walking backward is the first step on that route.

Walking backward is more of a healing exercise than a bulletproofing for future, I think it’s important to keep in mind that it enhances the results of more advanced knee exercises.

10. Mental! I really got my vigor back for life when I found I could DO something to reduce my knee pain and increase my knee ability.

Rest, ice, painkillers… these don’t improve the ABILITY of your knees.

Walking backward does.

No more waiting, hoping, and sitting on the sideline.

Not to mention the hormone rush you get from a vigorous workout!

Conclusion

Walking backward is the lowest level of knees over toes training.

Walking backward in itself is effective, but it’s also a gateway to further ability.

10 Tips are from Ben Patrick with knees over toes

If you would like our help in giving you a step by step plan and a coach to help hold you accountable, reach out to us at Get You In Shape.

Coach Brad Linder
Chief Motivating Officer 
www.GetYouInShape.com