Retro-Walk for Brain balance & Longevity
I practiced the art of retro walking every morning for two weeks and only tripped twice... I think it could benefit all of us.
The key to brain-balance & longevity-
The simplest tweak that holds the most significant benefits to something that we all do daily---walking…
Humans hold a natural ability to walk (forward) without thinking…
There is an old Chinese belief that walking backwards for 100 steps is equivalent to walking forwards for 1000 steps. There are also other superstitions that walking backwards can help correct your past mistakes & sins. Whatever the reason---the Chinese have been walking backwards to maintain good health since ancient times & it's something that I think could benefit a lot of us ‘sittin-folk.’
Retro-walking is not only awesome for your body, but also develops & maintains ‘cognitive fitness.’ This is because we are actively engaging our brain consciously to control the direction and balance of our body. All in all- walking backwards is the easiest and most effective way to retain the strength and endurance of your entire locomotor control system.
I would listen to an audio book on tape while walking backwards & talk about mental stimulation...
Reverse walkin’ is an awesome way to reduce the strain on the knees & works to strengthen the surrounding ligaments and tendons- which is very useful for creating overall balanced & resilient leg muscles to support your body. So, if you're someone who's got wonky, clicky, achy breaky knees...This could be the answer you have been searching for.
Got tight hip flexors? We all do, we all sit too god damn much, we all slouch too damn much... Walking forward presents us with an innate forward lean, unlike backwards walking...We stand tall and swing to reach the leg BACK behind us to pull ourselves backwards in motion. This scooping motion lengthens the hip flexors- which could be a possible culprit for some unwanted back pain.. You'll initially also feel some muscles telling you that they havent been used this way in a long time (if ever)...Our muscles draft up teams to accomplish the set tasks in front of us- this new task will force you to draft up a net team to work…& guess what..? When you exhaust that team- you can turn around and walk forward as your recovery & use the other, more familiar team…& you won't have to think nearly as hard.
The days following my backwards walks, I felt a lot of my under-used muscles that got activated as a result of not allowing my ‘normal’ walker muscles to dominate the show. Naturally- you will feel a lot more glute activation, but if you want to get crazy- maintain a soft bend in the knees and glide as you walk backwards...This will really increase the time under tension on the butt muscles...you'll never need a booty band again
Reverse walking is also used as a rehab program to develop natural gait patterns in children with cerebral palsy, stroke patients, parkinsons, as well as spinal patients.
This is because walking backwards fires up the neuromuscular pathways (mind muscle connection) that get exhausted as we all get older. The purpose that the reverse walk pattern serves is to force our brain and body to coordinate balance as well as mobility simultaneously. Breaking the routine stimulates your brain in a different way to sharpen thinking skills and enhance cognitive control.
I'm a classic ADHD case, I have also been exercising for a lot of years now. It's inevitable, at some point- we all face a little ennui while performing the same old stuff every day. Just switching up my morning movement routine by injecting this seemingly simple practice kept things interesting for me & made it fun.
Whether you're trying to correct some of your past mistakes, or you're trying to get some of the health benefits..
Hopefully I inspired yall to break out of the common daily movement patterns to have a little fun walkin in reverse. Remember, movement should always be fun...If its not, youre doing it wrong.