When Reverse Is Progress

Read on kevferrell.com

Welcome to REWIRE | REBOOT, a weekly newsletter where I share reflections from my ongoing personal growth journey and provide tested ideas, frameworks, tools and practices to help you create the life you want.

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In this issue:

• Rewire - Going Backwards
• Reboot - Stronger in Reverse
• One Action - Walk it Back
• Toolkit - ATG by Ben Patrick

Rewire - Idea I'm Exploring​
​Going Backwards

We’ve all heard the phrase: “One step forward, two steps back.”

It sounds like failure. Stalled progress. Lost momentum.
Like you were getting somewhere, then suddenly weren’t.

But I think that framing misses something.

Most setbacks are not one step forward and two steps back.

More often, they are one step back and two steps forward.

Still progress. Just with feedback attached.

And sometimes, going backwards is not a setback at all.

Sometimes it is the move.

You retrace your steps and finally see where things went wrong.
You reverse course because the path you were forcing was never the right one.
You step away from a role, relationship, or identity that was holding you back.

From the outside, it may look like regression.

But not all regression is weakness.

Some regression is recovery.
Recalibration.
Wisdom temporarily interrupting momentum.

There are the involuntary versions of regression.

The health scare.
The financial hit.
The job loss.
The relationship ending.
The moment life grabs the steering wheel because you refused to turn.

Those moments rarely feel useful while you’re in them.

They feel like loss. Confusion. Like the floor has disappeared beneath your feet.

But sometimes the floor disappearing is how you discover you were standing in the wrong room.

I’ve lived versions of this.

There were paths I was on that were not right for me. At the time, I tried to force my way through them. More pressure. More effort. More convincing myself that if I just kept pushing, it would work.

It didn’t.

Eventually, things broke down.

But that breakdown changed the direction of my life. It changed who I became. And looking back, I don’t like to imagine where I might have ended up if nothing had interrupted me.

That is the strange gift of going backwards.

It can feel like you’re losing ground, when in reality you’re being pulled out of the wrong future.

And then there is the voluntary version.

The kind you choose before life chooses it for you.

You step back from something that’s confining you to discover new paths to explore.
You return to basics because the advanced stuff was built on a shaky foundation.
You become a beginner again because mastery in the wrong thing is still the wrong thing.

This is harder than it sounds.

Because stepping back bruises the ego.

It seems inefficient.
It feels uncomfortable.
It can make you wonder if you wasted time.

But wasted time is not always wasted. Sometimes it is tuition. The price of wisdom.

Sometimes you had to walk far enough down the wrong road to recognize the right one when you finally saw it.

Progress is not always forward.

Sometimes progress is stopping. Or even turning around.

Sometimes progress is having the humility to say:

This path is not working. I need to go back, rebuild, begin again.

That is not failure.

That is course correction.

And course correction is how you stay in motion without staying stuck.

Reboot - Health & Longevity​​
​Stronger in Reverse

Going backwards is not just a mindset lesson.

It is also a training strategy.

And for balanced lower-body strength, knee health, and durability, it can be a game changer.

Most of daily life happens moving forward. We walk forward, run forward, climb forward, train forward.

That is not bad.

But over time, it can leave gaps.

Certain muscles get overused. Others get neglected. The body becomes very good at one pattern, while weaker ranges, angles, and tissues quietly fall behind.

Training in reverse helps fill those gaps.

It trains the opposite pattern.
It builds capacity in undertrained areas.
It strengthens the knees, quads, hip flexors, ankles, and lower legs in a different way.

Research on backward walking, often called retro walking, has shown potential benefits for knee function, quadriceps strength, mobility, and pain reduction particularly in people with knee osteoarthritis.

While that research is specific, the broader principle is simple: the body adapts to what you ask it to do.

And most of us almost never ask it to move in reverse.

I can tell you from experience, it worked wonders for me.

Here are three simple ways to start.

1. Reverse Walking or Jogging

Reverse walking is the easiest entry point.

Walk backwards slowly on flat ground. Use a hallway, basement, turf or track where safety is controlled. Keep the steps controlled. Let the toes reach back first, then roll through the foot. Toe to heel (the reverse of heel to toe forward walking)

It’s not about speed. It’s about control.

Reverse walking wakes up the quads and lower legs in a way forward walking does not. It also forces attention. You cannot zone out the same way when your body is moving in a direction your brain is not used to.

Start with a few minutes.

If you want to kick it up a notch once you’re ready, jogging backwards is the progression.

2. Reverse Walking on Treadmill

This is another simple tool.

Turn the treadmill speed way down. Add a slight incline at first. Over time, you can increase it as long as the movement stays controlled and pain-free.. Hold the rails if needed. Walk backwards with control.

The incline increases the demand on the quads and knees, but because the speed is low and the movement is controlled, it’s an easy way to scale up.

3. Reverse Sled Pulls

This is my favourite. I begin every workout with this movement when it is available.

With a sled, you can create resistance without the same impact or pounding you get from jumping or running. You walk backwards against load, driving through the legs while keeping the movement smooth.

The beauty is the scalability - in load, distance and speed.

As well as the low injury risk.

With a sled, failure is simple: it just doesn’t move. That makes it much easier to scale than a heavy lift where failure can come with more consequence.

The Rule

There is a key rule for all of these movements: Only work in a pain-free range.

No “pushing through it.” Forget “no pain, no gain”.

Pain is information.
If there is pain, regress.

Shorten the distance.
Slow it down.
Reduce the incline.
Use less load.
Find the version your body can do cleanly.

Regression isn’t backing off.
It’s intelligent progression.

How I Discovered This

In 2021, I completely tore my quad tendon and had surgery to reattach it to my kneecap.

My leg was immobilized in a splint for 10 weeks. My knee was locked straight. My quad had atrophied. My leg barely felt like mine.

At first, rehab was not about strength. It was about function. Bend the knee. Regain range. Rebuild the connection between my brain and my leg.

Month by month, things improved. But even after more than a year, I was not where I wanted to be.

Then I discovered Ben Patrick, known as the Knees Over Toes Guy, and started his ATG program

The early movements were humbling. Not just because of the injury, but because the injury exposed something bigger: years of training had made me strong in some ranges and underdeveloped in others.

So I went backwards.

I started with regressions.
I worked through pain-free ranges.
I rebuilt from the ground up.

Eventually, I progressed into full ranges and loaded movements.

Now my knees are better than they ever were.

That is the real lesson.

Sometimes the thing that sets you back forces you to rebuild in a way you never would have chosen.

And if you rebuild properly, you may not just get back to where you were.

You may go further.

One Action​
​Walk it Back​
​
This week, spend five minutes walking backwards.

That’s it.

Use a hallway, basement, driveway, turf, or treadmill.

Start slow. Keep the steps short. Stay in a pain-free range.

Notice what feels different.

Your quads.
Your knees.
Your balance.
Your attention.

Let me know how it goes. Just reply to this email.

Toolkit - Something I'm Doing​
​ATG by Ben Patrick​
​
Ben’s ATG system is one of the most useful tools I’ve found for knee health, mobility, and lower-body durability. But it is not just a knee program. It is a full-body system built around ability, progression, and pain-free movement.

And it can be adapted across any age, ability, and training experience.

Ben also gives away a ton of useful free content through his YouTube channel, Instagram account, articles, and his newsletter.

His paid ATG program includes app access, exercise progressions, and form coaching through video feedback.

If you deal with knee pain, want better mobility, or are looking for simple, effective strength training with a minimal equipment commitment, ATG is worth checking out.

Inspirational Quote​
​
“Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward.”

Readers Corner​
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Until next week,

Kevin

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