Backward Walking - There are some benefits of backward walking:
- Walking backwards burns more calories. Moving in reverse gets your heart pumping faster than moving forwards, meaning you get a cardio fix, metabolism boost and torch more calories in a shorter period of time.
- Walking backwards is brilliant for balance. Your body is used to hoofing it forwards without thought. But when you switch up direction, you slightly throw off your body’s centre of gravity, calling for more stability to maintain your balance. Always make sure you’re walking in an area without obstacles to avoid falls or collisions.
- Walking backwards sharpens the senses. Since it goes against our logic, stepping in reverse hones your thinking skills. You have to pay attention, which flexes your mental muscles, boosts body consciousness and improves your vision.
- Walking backwards is easier on the joints and back. If you have any sort of back or knee injury, you’ll soon see why walking backwards is good for you when you begin reverse stepping. It takes away the usual heel-strike, requires less range of motion in your joints than walking forwards and changes your pelvic alignment to open joints in your spine - potentially easing off back pain.
- Walking backwards does wonders for flexibility & strength. Retro-walking for 10-15 minutes, four days a week, can flex out your hamstrings and strengthen muscles that usually take a backseat when we walk forwards (looking at you, quads and calves).
- Walking backwards shakes up your routine. Bored of the same old exercises? Not only does reversing your walk come with a range of benefits for the mind and body, it mixes up your activities and staves off monotony - meaning you’re more likely to stick with your training.
Crossover Step - The step up crossover is a great move to target and tone your inner and outer thighs, quads, hamstrings, and glutes. This exercise also raises your heart rate, improves circulation and boosts your metabolism.
Downhill Walking - While it reduces the load on the heart and lungs, downhill walking actually increases the load on the muscles significantly. Our muscles work in 3 different ways; to shorten and produce movement, to stay the same length and hold a position, and to lengthen while slowing or braking our movement.
Side Step - By embracing lateral movements we engage different muscles, even out muscular imbalances, and help stabilize the hips and pelvis – which is fundamental to staying injury free. Lateral training is also good for our mind, it provides variety and teaches us to respond quickly to new stimuli.