Everywhere, there is movement with this expanse of trees and grass and temples. All ages–from 9 to 99–are here, practicing Tai Chi and Sword Arts, swinging their arms, rubbing their kidneys, rotating their waists, and hanging from low-hanging tree branches (to stretch their spines).
Amid pretty much everything, is a thing that makes me rub my sleepy eyes and look again: teams of women are walking backwards inside the lane. That: walking backwards, calmly and confidently.
This ancient exercise (yes! It is really an exercise!) is amongst the treasures of Chinese health practice, addressing problems with balance, leg strength, back strength, and posture. It may seem simple, however the logic behind why this is a sound practice are profound. Read about a couple of:
1. As we grow older, our fear of falling causes us to react wrongly. When babies fall backwards, they merely plump as a result of a sitting position, however tendency disappears as we get older. Many falls find yourself going backward because we arch our backs. Walking backwards rounds that portion of our back that we arch, and encourages ‘forward’ muscle use.
2. Anything that is wrong about your posture originated from walking forward! Slumping, slouching, rounding, arching…all those behaviors. Walking backwards reverses these habits.
3. From an energetics standpoint, walking backwards actually re-frames consciousness in our bodies. The straightforward explanation is our attention tends to favor top of our own bodies on the exclusion of what is behind us. Chinese health insurance and martial exercises both encourage ‘whole body’ awareness for ‘whole body’ health. Walking backwards produces a ‘sensor’ to integrate this area.
4. Walking backwards actually engages completely different multiple muscles. This will be relevant especially as our bodies age, since we lose flexibility and our flexibility often diminishes. By utilizing different muscles we exercise elements of our body which need attention.
To learn more about Manfaat Jalan see this popular webpage.
