Walking is an activity almost everyone can easily take part in, but there are ways to increase its health benefits. Dr Milica McDowell, a physiotherapist and co-author of Walk: Your Life Depends On It, suggests two unorthodox techniques to reduce lower body pain: walking backwards and walking barefoot.
Walking Backwards for Knee Pain
“Walking backwards can be very helpful for people with knee pain,” says Dr McDowell. “Often, people who have knee pain are weak in their quadriceps muscles or their core. Walking backwards changes the pattern in which the muscles are firing, emphasising these weaker muscle groups.” She explains that in evidence-based practice, it is common to have patients with knee pain walk backwards on a treadmill for a few minutes while holding on for safety. This builds strength in underused areas, balancing the body to function without pain.
To incorporate this into daily life, Dr McDowell suggests sprinkling small amounts of backward walking into regular walks. “If you’re going for a 20-minute walk, you might try doing two or three minutes of that walking backwards,” she advises. Safety is paramount, so she recommends doing this in a controlled environment like a treadmill or track.
Barefoot Walking for Heel Pain
For those suffering from heel pain or plantar fasciitis, Dr McDowell recommends barefoot walking. “That sounds terribly counterintuitive – ‘My foot hurts, shouldn’t I wear a giant cushioned shoe?’” she says. “But what’s interesting about research in this area is that, if we walk barefoot, we land more softly. A lot of the time, people who have plantar-fascia problems are landing super hard and they're in a very narrow shoe so the muscles [of their feet] aren't working. If the muscles aren’t working, the tissues are getting overloaded, and it becomes this really terrible inflammatory tug of war at the foot.”
Dr McDowell notes that research focuses on walking on soft surfaces like grass. She recommends finding a safe, comfortable spot to try barefoot walking, such as a park or beach, to allow the foot muscles to engage naturally and reduce pain.
