When we walk backwards we are getting the hips to move the way they should be in a forward and backwards motion. You may find that walking forwards you have a ‘hip drop’ which means the hips go up and down instead of forward and backwards. By walking backwards, this eliminates the hip drop as the body can’t physically do this. Furthermore, the muscles which engage to bring the leg back is the lower back and glutes. Therefore, if you have lower back pain or want to get the glutes fired up then backwards walking is a great exercise to do.
This exercise works through repetition. The more we do it, the easier it becomes. The brain will eventually go onto ‘auto-pilot’ firing up the muscles needed to complete the movement as soon as we take a step backwards. The body has learnt to stabilise, move and fire up where it needs to.
Some of the benefits of walking backwards is the reduction in lower back pain. This is because the body is using the lower back muscles to create the movement and pull the leg back behind you. Furthermore, you will notice your hip mobility increasing because of the movement we are making the hips do.
We are also walking in the correct way when walking backwards as it is not possible to walk incorrectly. We then take this ‘new style walking’ into walking forwards therefore correcting our walking technique.
So give it a go and let us know how you get on!
Comments