Walking has earned a reputation as a great form of exercise that’s easy and accessible for many people, and scores of studies show the popular activity has numerous health benefits, too.

Getting at least 2,300 steps per day reduces your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, according to one study published in a 2023 edition of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

In addition, weight-bearing exercises such as walking help prevent osteoporosis, according to another study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Yet some experts in the health and fitness fields assert that while walking is certainly good for your health and fitness, it’s not really high-quality exercise. One such expert is Melissa Boyd, a certified personal trainer and coach with Tempo, an online personal training platform. Boyd is based in San Francisco.

“Our lives have gotten so busy — we commute, sit all day, then are exhausted at night — that getting a short walk in makes you feel like you’ve done this big, exponential thing,” Boyd said. “But walking is really a baseline movement your body requires to function well, to help with things like circulation and digestion, and to decompress.”

To help her clients better understand why a daily walk won’t result in a beach body — something many of them believe, thanks to various social media influencers — she discusses with them the three types of movement that are beneficial for overall health and fitness.

First is the movement your body is owed or requires every day, such as walking, stretching and bending. Second is athletic movement, which you can do a few times a week to improve your fitness or to train for a sport. Third is social movement that you do for fun or to connect with others, such as dancing or playing volleyball.

“It’s important to think of movement in these different categories because not moving throughout the day has become normalized,” Boyd said. “Our lives are so sedentary, many of us are trying to dig ourselves out of a movement deficit. But exercise is different from physical movement.”

Our bodies need to move in many different ways

Walking is great, but it’s just one, unidirectional form of movement, and our bodies need more to be functionally fit, said Dr. Carl Cirino, a sports medicine surgeon at HSS Orthopedics with Stamford Health in Connecticut.

People use the muscles and tendons in their bodies to assist with all the bending, twisting and rotating they do in their daily lives, Cirino said, so they need to work and stretch them in many different directions. Yoga and Pilates are two activities that are very effective and healthy in this regard, he said.

“Stretching is also incredibly easy, and something you can do when you wake up and before you go to bed,” Cirino said.

Having loose, pliable muscles also means you will have more balance and stability, which helps prevent falls and injuries in all physical activities, he said. It’s also good to get your heart rate up several times a week for cardiovascular health.

Time for an exercise snack

Ideally, you should create a plan that incorporates daily “owed” movements, such as walking and stretching, with some cardiovascular work, strength training and social activity sprinkled throughout the week, the two said. That can seem overwhelming for many, however.

Breaking down all these different movements into exercise snacks is one way to sneak in the movement your body needs, Boyd said.

“Maybe get a walking pad and do some of your meetings while walking slowly on the pad,” she said. “Maybe every time you go to the bathroom, you do 20 squats, or every time you get water, you do 10 push-ups against a wall. If you attach these exercise snacks to something else you’re already doing, you can make it more of a habit. I’ve seen huge success with this.”

Boyd also encourages her clients to find some form of movement they enjoy that doesn’t seem like a workout, such as playing kickball or pickleball. That way, you’re having fun and being social while getting fitter.

Cirino agrees. “We see kids here in sports medicine whose parents want them to play baseball, but they don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s the same with exercise. You need to find something that’s interesting and easy — maybe an activity your friends are doing — and use that as the basis to build good habits.”

Start slowly and build from there

Rethinking exercise as regular movements your body needs for functionality, fitness and social connection also can be a means of giving yourself permission to carve out time for working out, Boyd said.

It’s also helpful to keep in mind that creating an exercise plan doesn’t require an immediate, massive change in your lifestyle. In fact, it’s better to start slowly with new, little chunks of movement.

“What I usually see is that people love the way this starts to make them feel,” Boyd said. “Then the stronger they become, the more they want to move even more. Movement inspires movement.”

Melanie Radzicki McManus is a freelance writer who specializes in hiking, travel and fitness.

“You have never seen women with bodies like this,” she told me as we drove to the Motivate Studio in Silverlake in January 2022. And it was true: the women in the studio did have amazing bodies in their very shiny, very tight pastel leggings and bra tops; lean and muscular and pert. A bit like Barbie. “If you did this three times a week, you’d look like one of them,” my sister told me. “I very much doubt that,” I replied.

Lagree Fitness is sort of like Reformer Pilates, but on potent steroids. Like Reformer, the exercises are done on a machine, in this case the Megaformer, which sounds like it might be a dinosaur. The Megaformer has two carriages, multiple straps, pulleys and intensity levels, as well as numbers that indicate where you must put your hands and feet for torturous planks, wobbly gliding lunges and impossible pulses. One must transition from one move to the next in a matter of seconds, which requires ungodly dexterity and reflexes. There are no rest periods in the 45-minute class, the aim being to reach a point where your muscles are trembling and you are begging for mercy. I reached this point pretty fast, unable to keep up with my sleek gym companions as they crunched and pulled and pushed. “Go, G,” the instructor shouted. “You’ve got this,” she continued. I really did not. I nearly cried with relief when she announced that we had only 20 seconds to go. It felt like 20 hours.

My sister had warned me that my muscles would ache the next day. I didn’t expect that I would be so sore I would not be able to walk. Which was a minor issue as I was flying home since I had to hobble through LAX. It felt like someone had stripped my calf muscles from my legs, rolled them into solid little balls, then reattached them.

Yet I was intrigued. My sister’s words, “You could have a body like that” replayed in my mind like a motivational mantra as I ploughed through the complimentary pretzels on the flight back. When I got home I looked up Lagree Fitness. The “method” was founded in 1998 by a man called Sebastien Lagree, who, on his website, describes himself as a “visionaire”. Michelle Obama, Jennifer Aniston and the Duchess of Sussex are fans. According to the literature, Lagree Fitness is more like bodybuilding than Pilates, and the Megaformer more like an “advanced spaceship” than the classic Pilates reformer. This all sounded suitably impressive. The problem was, back in 2022, I couldn’t find anywhere in London to do Lagree Fitness. My total body transformation would have to wait.

Then I heard about Studio Fix, a gym that opened this year in Kensington. Here was a devoted Lagree Fitness studio. “Sculpt your physique in a modern, luxurious space,” the website suggested. OK then. The gym, which has three studios and also offers Barre, HIIT, yoga and boxing with wheelchair access, was designed by WGB architects and is suitably swanky, with a smoothie bar in reception and Dyson hairdryers in the changing rooms as well as a big tub of free hairbands. Always useful.

The Lagree studio is comfortingly dark, with nightclub lights, cool hotel-lobby music and lots of mirrors in which the other attendees, who did indeed have very sculpted physiques, could take photographs of themselves to impress their followers on social media. I explained to the instructress that, although I had attended one class before, I considered myself a relative newbie. She talked me through the rigorous complexities of the Megaformer, and we began.

Studio Fix was designed by WGB architects

Now, I am not a complete sloth. I do yoga twice a week, weights once a week and run a bit when the weather is temperate. But my God, within about three exercises I was already having to down-level because I just couldn’t manage, I didn’t have the core strength. Or the anything else strength. The instructress called out things like “Grab the Ring of Fire” and “In 20 seconds we will be doing the sexy back,” while I puffed and floundered. I sought comfort and camaraderie from the women to my left and right, but they were at it like machines. The pace was marginally slower than the LA equivalent, but still I mostly failed to keep up.

At the end of it all the instructress told me that I’d done well, adding that it was a tough workout. And for the next three days my stomach muscles were stinging and sore in a way they had never been from any other workout. But still, I think I’ll return. Something that tough surely should make a difference. And who doesn’t want a sexy back? Or indeed free hairbands?

www.studiofix.co.uk

I’ve spent my whole life happily walking in one direction: forward. It was, I believed, the only way to go, so I dutifully logged dozens of miles a month looking like every other person out for a morning stroll.

No more. Thanks to TikTok, I discovered a new (to me, at least) spin on walking: backward walking, also known as “retro-walking.” Though it’s trending on social-media platforms right now, physical therapists and fitness trainers have been touting its benefits for years. It’s a low-impact way to burn calories, strengthen your legs, test your coordination, and even improve pain, experts say—all of which lured me onto my quiet, rural street one afternoon to give it a whirl.

After about 50 steps, I realized going in reverse was no walk in the park. It burned. I could feel the switch-up in my lower legs in a way I don’t with ordinary walking unless I’m powering up a hill. There was a mental challenge, too (beyond ignoring the strange looks from my neighbors). I had no idea what was behind me, so I had to engage all my senses to ensure I stayed upright and didn’t trip over any unexpected obstacles—including my walking partner, who was slightly faster and, therefore, a couple steps behind me.

When I told a handful of experts about my surprisingly fun retro-walking expedition, they agreed more people should make it part of their routine. Here’s a look at why.

It’s great for older people

Backward walking is an underrated way to engage your glutes, shins, and the muscles in your feet and ankles, says Joe Meier, a Minnesota-based personal trainer and author of Lift for Life. Plus, it mitigates the impact of each step, reducing the force exerted on the knees and lower back. Part of its appeal, he adds, is that it’s so accessible—and suitable for people of any age and fitness level.

Read More: Why Walking Isn’t Enough When It Comes to Exercise

Meier has noticed that older people, in particular, are drawn to backward walking as a no-frills way to spice up their fitness routine. “If you look around a gym that has tons of treadmills, you’ll see at least one or two people walking backward at any given time,” Meier says. “There are always older individuals walking backward on the ground, too, and you can tell someone has told them, ‘Hey, you should try doing this because it’s great for your balance and coordination—just don’t trip over anything.’” He points out that many pickleball players have adopted the practice: It can help strengthen their knees and ensure they don’t take a (metaphorical) step back on the courts.

You’ll engage different muscles

Walking backward requires you to stand up straighter than you do when walking forward, Meier says. By reversing your stride, you’ll create a new challenge for the muscles in the abdomen, lower limbs, and back. “You might notice your glute muscles—your big butt muscles—are doing more work,” Meier says. (Author’s note: You’ll definitely notice.) Meanwhile, your calf muscles will need to work opposite of how they usually do. When you walk forward, your calf contracts concentrically, which means the muscle gets shorter, he explains. When you’re going in reverse, your calf muscle contracts the opposite way and gets longer as it bears your body weight. That switch-up can be a valuable way to improve your fitness.

You’ll also be targeting the quad muscles on the front of your thighs. According to one study—yes, scientists have studied this—people who walked backward three times a week for six weeks ended up with improved quadriceps muscle strength, compared to those who walked forward for their exercise. The quads are responsible for knee extension and straightening your leg, Meier explains—so they, too, work differently when you’re walking backward. “That’s one of the reasons why people say it helps their knee pain improve,” he says. “You’re essentially strengthening your quads by doing this backward walking trick.”

It can be good for people with injuries

When New York City-based Peloton Tread instructor Marcel Dinkins had patella issues, she took up backward walking. She returned to it recently after tearing her ACL. “You get to push off,” she says, describing the motion required to launch into walking in reverse. “When you have running or knee issues, you usually have a little pain right underneath your patella. Running backward gives you some respite and relief.”’

Read More: Why Hiking Is the Perfect Mind-Body Workout

Retro-walking has a long history of being used in a clinical or rehabilitation sense, says Janet Dufek, a biomechanist and professor in the School of Integrated Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has researched backward walking. One study, for example, found that after a six-week retro-walking program, participants with osteoarthritis in the knee experienced greater reduction in pain and functional disability compared to those who walked in the typical way. Another found that backward walking down a steep slope alleviated symptoms of plantar fasciitis. And in a study led by Dufek, walking backward reduced lower back pain and enhanced function among athletes. 

Retro-walking is also used in occupational therapy. Older people might practice walking up to a kitchen sink, for example, and then walking backward away from it. The ability to move in reverse can enhance “practical activities of daily living,” Dufek says.

It could make you more flexible

Many of us sit all day long—which leads to coiled-up, restricted muscles. “Our hip flexors, or the muscles at the front of the thigh and the front of the hip, get tighter,” says Kristyn Holc, a physical therapist with Atlantic Sports Health Physical Therapy in Morristown, N.J. When we walk backward, we’re stretching that tissue—leading to greater flexibility, which is linked to improved physical performance, increased muscle blood flow, and a reduced risk of injuries. “You’ll notice a lot of people, especially as they get older, hinge at the hips—they get a little bit of a bend there,” she says. “That’s because their hip flexors are tight. So if we can stretch those out, it helps us be able to get that upright posture.”

Your gait and balance might improve

Elizabeth Stroot, a physical therapist with Core Wellness & Physical Therapy in Alexandria, Va., uses retro-walking to help people normalize their gait pattern, or how they walk. “It’s a way to tap into our neuromuscular programming and get people to work through a little limp or a range-of-motion restriction,” she says. Walking backward for just 20 or 30 feet at a time is often enough to help some patients, she adds.

Read More: Your Brain Doesn’t Want You to Exercise

It can also improve balance control, especially among older adults, who are at a higher risk of falls. That’s because we maintain our balance through three big systems, Holc says: our eyes, our muscles and joints, and the vestibular system, or inner ear. When we walk backward, we can’t see what’s behind us, which means we have to rely on the other two systems instead, sharpening their ability to keep us upright. “You’re having to feel where you are in space, and that information is being sent to the brain,” she says.

But you need to do it safely

Many people experiment with retro-walking on their treadmill, which is free of hazards like rocks, uneven ground, and other people. You don’t even have to turn it on, Dinkins points out: Simply step onto the machine backward, grasp the handrails, and use your own power to move the belt. “If you’re pushing it, you’re going to get more of that resistance,” she says—leading to a better workout. If you do decide to turn on the treadmill, start at a low speed and keep the safety key clipped to you at all times, Dinkins advises.

No treadmill? No problem: Choose a safe spot indoors or outside, like a hallway, walking track, or empty field. Dufek encourages people to partner up: “Two people face each other and hold hands, and one of them walks backward while the other one’s walking forward,” she says. “That person can be the eyes for the other one, so it’s very safe, and then you just switch places.”

No matter where you start backward walking, keep in mind that you won’t go as fast backward as you do going forward. There’s a learning curve, Dufek stresses: “If you can walk 4 miles per hour forward, don’t expect to be able to walk that fast backward,” she says. “At least initially, if you can walk 1 mile per hour backward, you’re in a good place.” As with any new exercise, ease in gradually. You might walk backward for 5 or 10 minutes three times a week, and then after a few weeks, add 5 more minutes to each session, Dufek suggests. “As your body neurologically learns the movement pattern, you’ll be able to walk faster,” she says. “And of course, walking faster burns more calories, and then you can be out in public and get laughed out for even longer. It’s fun.” How’s that for forward progress?