Walking Backward for Christmas

The day before yesterday I listened to a Michael Mosley radio programme about the benefits of walking backwards, so I set up the treadmill I rescued in the workshop and gave it a go.

The objective is to work up to 5 minutes of backward walking - a woman who did a trial for Mosley took a week to get up to 5 minutes. Naturally, I thought 5 minutes would be easy at the first attempt - it wasn't. On my first attempt I managed 3 minutes before having to stop. However, by my 3rd go yesterday I was up to 5 minutes at 2.5 mph, and could have doubled it - but it's a tad boring. I need a book to read while doing it.

You use a completely different set of leg muscles when walking backwards - bigger muscles, which results in more energy being used and more calories being burned than walking forwards, and you know it, even after just 5 minutes.

There are also meant to be benefits in terms of balance and, believe it or not, memory and cognition. I suppose the cognition and memory improvements come from open air walking, rather than simply doing it on a treadmill, as there's more to think about when trying to keep upright and navigate.

There is also a benefit from walking downhill, for exactly the same reason (different muscles come into play), so the objective must be to walk up a hill backwards and come down forwards.