Healthy Life Tip: Walk Backwards to Strengthen & Heal Your Knees by Shankar Tillotson

Let me preface my suggestion by telling you an old Chinese saying: “100 steps backward are worth 1,000 steps forward.”

Hi! I’m Renée’s older son.

As a wild land firefighter, I do a lot of training, hiking, running and working on rugged terrain. About a year ago, I started having trouble with my knees – some pain and instability. This was a bummer not just at work or in the gym – I also love to run and surf. So I was seriously motivated to solve the problem.

After doing extensive internet research on some of the best advice from physical therapists, kinesiologists and athletic trainers, I came up with this regimen for my knees:

• I walk backward whenever I can – either for work (non-urgent hours), work-outs or recreation. Old Chinese people sometimes link arms, with one person looking forward and the other person looking backward, then trading positions.
• I especially choose to hike backward uphill, always in non-dangerous circumstances when I can keep an eye over my shoulders – often on a sidewalk or on my treadmill. My little children think their daddy is funny walking backward!
• I also stand at a slant with my shoulder blades against a wall, feet well in front of my body, which I keep straight as a board. From that position I do sets of lifting my toes up towards my head, stretching down through my heels. 

As a result of doing these exercises regularly for about 3 months, I strengthened all the muscles and stimulated the connective tissues surrounding and supporting my knees. I now experience no knee pain at all.

This backward walking is kind of like rolling the odometer back, taking miles off the motor! It utilizes muscle groups that don’t often get activated. It’s good not just for your knees, but also your whole lower body, such as your Achilles, ankles and quads, plus it exercises your brain!

I have my own corny little saying now: “Walking backward each day keeps the knee doc away.”