Walking Backward Won't Fix Your Knee Pain

Listen, I am not saying I won't use backward walking for rehab. What I am saying is that it won't be the fix all for your knee.

I have been treating knee pain for over10 years now and have not once seen someone resolve their knee pain from walking backward.

Why Backward Walking Doesn't Really Work

You may say, "well, I started walking backward and my pain went away". To that I would ask, did you stop doing everything else? Are you still doing everything you want to be doing at the level you want to be doing it?

And that's the key. The absence of pain does not equate to the presence of function.

Let me put it this way. If you are a runner and you have knee pain while running and then I tell you to stop running I have solved your pain problem. The issue is, you didn't come to me to solve pain. You came to me because you don't want pain with running. Those two things are very different.

Concentric Vs Eccentric Strength

Some people will say that backward walking is great because it is concentric only. This will cause less pain in the knee while working the quad muscle. So for an entry level exercise, this can be fantastic. The problem is when you want to hit the brakes.

See, in order to slow down, you need to have eccentric strength and ability to tolerate eccentric load. If you haven't trained this movement, chances are when you go back to skiing, running, jumping, and climbing your knee pain will come right back. And that's because, depending the cause of your knee pain, backward walking hasn't solved the issue. It has just been a low level exercise you have been doing that has taken you away from doing the things that bother your knee.

Building Resilient Knees

In order to build resilient knees you need to be strong in all environments and be able to tolerate a lot of different loads. The continuum we work through for anterior knee pain (patellar tendinopathy/ quad tendinopathy / chondromalacia patella) is this:

1. Reduce symptoms

   1. Restore quad contraction

   2. Restore knee ROM

   3. Eliminate swelling

2. Isomeric loading

3. Eccentric and concentric strength work

4. Power production

5. Plyometrics

   1. Deep tier / yielding

   2. Pogo

   3. many types and directions here

6. Return to sport

The speed at which you go through this continuum is based on the individual person and the injury. But, we know this continuum – in general – works.

Work Backward From Your Goal

In order to be successful you will want to work backward from your goals. The reason why most cookie cutter programs or recommendations don't work is because your goals and unique personal experience and history will never match everyone else.

Let's say you want to ski without knee pain. That is a very different goal from someone who wants to run a 5k, or someone who wants to paddle board, or an athlete returning to football.

The demands of those activities is different. They require a different level of exposure to force and different abilities.

So at the end of the day, it's not bad to try. Especially if it's free or low cost. Just don't give up hope or get frustrated with lack of results. The help you need it out there, you just have to find it.