If you’re just starting out learning ChiRunning/ChiWalking or working on improving your posture, walking backwards might be the ticket for you. Posture is so important to everything we do it life. Being out of alignment can lead to excessive wear on the part of the body that is carrying the most weight. Think about a person with weak stomach muscles, their center of balance may shift backwards causing low back pain as their core strength weakens over the years. A person who favors a leg due to a past injury may experience their good hip wear out from uneven use. If you are aware of changes affecting your body, it is possible to gradually undo some of the affects by practicing good posture.

Whether learning ChiWalking or ChiRunning you are taught to align your shoulders over the hips and hips over the ankles and connect those three into a straight line. This is defined as your posture line. Learning to feel what correct posture feels like is sometimes awkward for new clients due to years of poor postural habits. In workshops, the instructors will help align students and it is common for the students to feel like they are leaning forward when they are properly aligned. This disconnect with good posture sometimes is a challenge for clients to learn and keep the posture while moving. We have found that walking backwards allows you to feel what it is like to have your body in correct alignment. As you walk backwards your posture is aligned properly with your posture line dots connected and balanced. We will have the attendees feel what it feels like to move aligned and relaxed. Once they have the muscle memory built we have them move forward, trying to repeat the feeling of proper alignment. After moving about 20 steps forward we have them walk backwards again and compare. They repeat this several times until they are comfortable in keeping their alignment while walking. This can also be useful for running alignment but the area must be clear of obstacles for obvious reasons.

Another advantage of moving backwards is how short your stride is. The shorter stride allows for quicker turnover and balance with relaxed feet. You will notice that as you lift your ankle the heel peals up like a post-it note being removed from note pad. This allows the student to feel what a relaxed short circular stride should feel like. The short circular stride is the hallmark of ChiRunning and ChiWalking. Having good posture with the appropriate lean allows the runner/walker to relax and fluently move without engaging needless leg muscles. Working with backwards drills is a way to put some of these elements into your practice. Sometimes to go forward you have to go backwards.