Bernard O'Shea discovers walking backwards actually makes him feel better

Bernard O'Shea says walking backward has surprising benefits, helps his bad back, and calms his brain

Bernard O'Shea: Walking backward helps me 'be present'. Photograph Moya Nolan

There’s no doubt that you will look like a circus clown if people see you walking backwards in the park. However, if your mind is like a circus with bizarre and random thoughts flying everywhere in all directions walking backwards just might be the circus act you need to do to calm your busy brain down.

The vast majority of trends I’ve tried for the last six months I've learned from others online. Whether it's drinking Tumeric tea or garlic water or wading through countless videos online about intermittent fasting, the internet has been my primary source for inspiration and at times desperation (I don’t care how good cold showers are for you it's not for me). However, I started walking backwards before the internet was on my mobile phone. Heck, I started doing it before I even had a mobile phone.

I was a student in Dundalk IT for four years during the nineties and early 2000s. It was there where one of the most recurring and freakiest physical incidents happened to me on a kitchen floor laden with layers of Macardles ale from dozens of student house parties. I was 21 and I did my back in.

I lay on the floor for hours and I couldn’t move. Instead of my housemates and myself being worried, we thought it was hilarious and they casual walked around me to get to the sink. It was the most surreal feeling. It felt like the top half of my body had separated from my legs. I could move my toes and arms but that was about it. The rest of my body felt paralysed. If I wasn’t an idiotic, slightly-inebriated 21-year- old who thought he was invincible I would have completely freaked out.

When I eventually got up it was painful to walk forward but oddly I could walk backwards. The next day I walked mostly backwards down the old Dublin Road to the bus stop and got the local Halfpenny's Bus to the college. Looking back (no pun intended) anyone driving down the Dublin Road in Dundalk circa 1999 must have gotten a good laugh or thought they were driving on the wrong side of the road. By mid-day, I was completely fine and my full walking attributes returned to normal; forwards, and backwards, even sideways.

Years later it happened again, however this time I was able to go see a physical therapist. She told me that it was my “sacroiliac” that was causing the problem. The sacroiliac is a joint that links your pelvis and lower spine. I also had a weak abdomen so my hamstrings were compensating and extremely tight. But why could I walk backwards not forwards? The physical reason was that you put less strain on your knees and hamstrings and you engage different muscles. She got me to do a simple experiment.

Stand up and walk backwards. Feel how tall you are? That's because when you walk backwards you have to think about every movement. Your posture improves and you are engaging your glutes.

It’s so true.

Try it now. Get up and walk backwards. The first thing you’ll probably do is straighten up. You will feel like there is a string pulling your head into the air. The second thing is you’ll find you are squeezing or “engaging” your bum or to give its technical term your glutes. Finally, your shoulders will drop and straighten.

A few years ago this phenomena happened to me again when I was on Dancing with the Stars. My dance partner and her husband spent hours trying to get me to walk in a straight line as part of my first dance. Not alone could I not dance I couldn’t even walk straight. Guess what? They got me to walk backwards around the studio for hours until I was able to fix my posture.

But in the last year, I found that walking backwards had an effect on me that had nothing to do with posture. Last Christmas my back started to act up again. Luckily I live beside the Phoenix Park. I took a long backwards walk in the 40 acres. It's a massive open field so it's almost impossible to walk into anything (I say almost I’ve tripped over the lead of a Jack Russell and her owner before). The park was almost empty and as I started to walk it felt meditative.

When I walk backwards I can only concentrate on one thing. I think about every little step. You are not looking at anything only directly ahead. You are not thinking about the shopping, kids, life, career or mortgage. You are forced into thinking about nothing only walking backwards. If you're like me and worry and catastrophes about absolutely everything in your life and find it hard to switch off, then walking backwards forces you to be “present”.

After about half a mile I normally start to feel a tiny little orgasmic “ahhh” like my brain is saying, “Ahh thanks Bernard you're not freaking out about how you said hello to the postman this morning or your ability to collect the kids on time because you booked too many Zoom calls. You didn’t even think once about the impending doom you feel about getting older, becoming irrelevant, and being a disappointment to everyone. Cheers. I really needed that.”

And if your brain doesn’t get a much-needed rest your memory might get a boost. According to a recent Harvard Medical School Study, it found that people who walked backwards, “imagined they were walking backward, or even watched a video simulating backward motion had better recall of past events than those who walked forward or sat still”. 

I’m not sure if my memory has improved since I've decide to walk backwards a few times a week, but I’m pretty sure my sacroiliac and anxiety have. If you plan on trying it just make sure that you have a clear path behind you and by that, I don’t mean a metaphorical one.