Strengthens Leg Muscles
If you’ve ever tried to walk backwards as a fitness exercise, you may have noticed that it involves different leg muscles than walking forward. Walking backwards engages your calf muscles, glutes, and quadriceps, which are very helpful muscles for kids! Strengthening these leg muscles can help him achieve other movement milestones such as climbing, kicking and even dancing.
Improves Balance and Coordination
Any type of exercise that improves a child’s balance and coordination is a good thing, and walking backwards just so happens to do that! Balance and coordination are at the root of tons of physical activities, such as learning to ride a bike or playing catch with a ball. Walking in reverse is not only great for your little one’s core muscles and posture control, it’s also a terrific exercise for his cerebellum too: Learning to balance while walking backwards facilitates the growth and development of neurons in the brain.
Strengthens Spatial Awareness
Walking backwards also helps to boost his spatial awareness, which is a cognitive skill that tells us our position relative to objects around us. Exercising his reverse skills allows him to understand how his body and his body parts move about a room without bumping into stuff.
Develops Proprioception
Your child’s proprioceptive sense is his ability to internally determine where his body parts are and how much effort he needs to move them about. This internal sense helps guide his backwards movements without needing to look back, and prevents him from toppling over.
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