Walking is good for you. Walking backward can add to the benefits
[October 15, 2025]
By STEPHEN WADE
Here’s a simple way to switch up your walking routine: try walking
backward.
Taking a brisk walk is an exercise rich in simplicity, and it can have
impressive mental and physical benefits: stronger bones and muscles,
cardiovascular fitness and stress relief, to name a few. But like any
workout, hoofing it for your health may feel repetitive and even boring
after a while.
Backward walking, also known as retro walking or reverse walking, adds
variety to an exercise routine. Turning around not only provides a
change of view, but also makes different demands on your body.
Janet Dufek, a biomechanist and faculty member at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, has researched the mechanics of both walking and
landing from jumps to identify ways of preventing injuries and improving
physical performance. And as a former college basketball player and a
regular exerciser, she's also done her fair share of backward walking.
In humans, reverse locomotion can increase hamstring flexibility,
strengthen underused muscles and challenges the mind as the body adjusts
to a new movement and posture.
“I see a lot of people in my neighborhood and they walk, and that's
good," she said. "But they are still stressing the same elements of
their structure over and over again. Walking backward introduces an
element of cross-training, a subtly different activity.”
On the treadmill
Kevin Patterson, a personal trainer in Nashville, Tennessee, recommends
the treadmill as the safest place to retro walk. You can adjust it to a
slow speed. However, Patterson likes to turn off the treadmill — termed
the “dead mill” — and have clients propel the belt on their own.
“It can take a while to get the treadmill going, but from there we have
them be the horsepower for the treadmill,” he said.
Patterson said he uses backward walking with all his clients as an
“accessory exercise” — a weight-training term for add-on movements
designed to work a specific muscle group — or during warm-ups. The
activity typically makes up a small part of the workouts, he said.
“The treadmill is great for older clients because you have the handles
on the side and you reduce that risk of falling,” he said.
Off the treadmill
Dufek suggests working a one-minute segment of backward walking into a
10-minute walk and adding time and distance as you get comfortable.
You can also do it with a partner; face each other, perhaps clasp hands.
One person walks backward, and the other strolls forward and watches for
problems. Then switch positions.
“At first, you start really, really slowly because there’s a balance
accommodation and there is brain retraining. You are learning a new
skill,” Dufek said. “You’re using muscles in different ways.”
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 If you work your way up to running
and get really good at it, you can try running a marathon backward —
26.2 miles or 42.2 kilometers. Yes, people have done that.
Backward walking as cross-training
Dufek classifies backward walking as a form of cross-training, or
incorporating a mix of moves into a fitness program. Doing a range
of exercises can help prevent overuse injuries, which can occur
after repeatedly using the same muscle groups.
For many people, cross-training involves different activities and
types of exercise: for example, running one day, swimming the next,
and strength training on a third day. But the modifications required
to walk backward work in the same way, but on a micro level.
Do small tweaks make much of a difference? Once an avid runner,
Dufek said she had several pairs of running shoes and did not wear
the same pair two days in a row.
“The shoes had a different level of wear, a different design,” she
said. “Just by changing that one element, in this case footwear, it
would provide a slightly different stress to the system.”
Retro walking as rehabilitation
Physical therapists instruct some of their clients to reverse walk,
which can be useful after knee injuries or for people in
rehabilitation or recovering from surgery.
“Backward walking is very different than forward walking from a
force perspective, from a movement pattern perspective,” Dufek
explained. Instead of landing heel first, "you strike the forefoot
first, often quite gently, and often the heel does not contact the
ground."
“This reduces of the range of motion in the knee joint, which allows
for activity without stressing the (knee) joint," Dufek said.
Backward walking also stretches the hamstring muscles, the group of
muscles at the back of the thigh. Dufek is interested in finding out
if it improves balance and reduces fall risks in older adults by
activating more senses of the body.
Athletes do it naturally
There is nothing unnatural about backward walking. If fact, backward
running is a key skill for top athletes.
Basketball players do it. So do soccer players. American football
players — particularly the defensive backs — do it continually.
“I played basketball and I probably spent 40% of my time playing
defense and running backwards,” Dufek said.
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