The advantages of Walking Back to Health

Everywhere, there exists movement with this expanse of trees and grass and temples. All ages–from 9 to 99–are here, practicing Tai Chi and Sword Arts, swinging their arms, rubbing their kidneys, rotating their waists, and hanging from low-hanging tree branches (to stretch their spines).

Amid this all, is one thing that makes me rub my sleepy eyes and appearance again: sets of women are walking backwards in the lane. That: walking backwards, calmly and confidently.

This ancient exercise (yes! It is an exercise!) is probably the treasures of Chinese health practice, addressing issues of balance, leg strength, back strength, and posture. It may look simple, but the explanations why it is just a good practice are profound. Here are just a few:

1. As we grow older, our anxiety about falling makes us react wrongly. When babies fall backwards, they merely plump down to a sitting position, but this tendency disappears even as grow older. Many falls turn out going backward because we arch our backs. Walking backwards rounds that section of our back we arch, and encourages ‘forward’ muscle use.

2. Everything that is wrong about your posture originated in walking forward! Slumping, slouching, rounding, arching…all of the undesirable habits. Walking backwards reverses these habits.

3. From an energetics standpoint, walking backwards actually re-frames consciousness inside our bodies. The simple explanation is the fact that our attention tends to favor the leading of our own bodies on the exclusion of what’s behind us. Chinese health insurance and martial exercises both encourage ‘whole body’ awareness for ‘whole body’ health. Walking backwards generates a ‘sensor’ to integrate the therapy lamp.

4. Walking backwards actually engages completely different sets of muscles. This will be relevant especially as we get older, because we lose flexibility and our flexibility often diminishes. By making use of different muscles we exercise aspects of our body that want attention.

For more information about Jalan Kaki Sehat check this popular website.