The 5 Reasons To Start Walking Backward

It was an ordinary day.  Returning from playing pool with a friend in the main building on the campus of Woodcrest Villas.  Hot summer day and I made the decision to walk the 1/4 mile to the billiards room on the second floor of the main building at Woodcrest Villas in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  There are many things to do for the residents at the villas, but my favorite is playing billiards or what most of you probably would call pool.  I have been playing a few times a week since we arrived at the villas about 2 years ago.  Most times I find a ride or drive myself from my villa to the 2nd floor billiards room which is close to one-quarter mile in distance.  But....today, which is close to 90 degrees outside, I decided to walk the distance.  Not the best move, but as you can see by my writing this story that I made it home again.  Well, I decided to walk so that I could try out some of the five reasons to start walking backwards.  I've spent my entire life walking in one direction, forward.  It was the best and fastest way to go from one location to another while walking.  A story in TIME Magazine recently told me there are 5 reasons to start walking backward, so I thought I would give it a try while on my way to playing billiards.  Those five reasons are: (1) It's actually great for older people since it helps in balancing as well as reducing the force exerted on the knees and lower back.  (2) You'll engage different muscles, (3) It can be good for people with injuries, (4) It could make you more flexible, and (5) Your gait might improve.  Well, I gave it a try for about....3 minutes....and then I found out how hard it is to see where you are going on streets that have cars coming and going both directions and where there are few sidewalks to walk on to where I need to go to play billiards and walk backwards on them!!  I really never did have trouble with balance in the first place.  As for engaging different muscles while walking backwards, yes, that did do that for me for the short distance I walked backwards.  Reason #3, helping people with injuries, well I found that there are too many cars on the roads and you might chance walking into the path of cars if you happen to turn you head away from where you are walking.  As far as making me more flexible, flexibility is not one of my problems in walking no matter if its backwards or frontwards.  The only thing I found was that I was beginning to worry that I might walk into the path of a car that I didn't see since I was walking backwards and didn't feel my field of vision was as good as if I were walking forward.  And...to improve my gait by walking backwards...well, it seemed to be throwing me off-balance, which is exactly what it was not supposed to do.  Oh well...I got to the billiards room on the second floor without anymore problems and after two hours of billiards, decided to walk forward on my way home...just in case!!  Perhaps I can give it a try again in the near future.  Maybe be better if I did it with a friend and we both try it at the same time...that way the cars coming our way may be seen easier by one of us and we can make the proper corrections before we are hit by one of the cars and end up never playing billiards again.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.