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RUNNING backwards is hard work—and not just because you can’t see where
you’re going.

Seth Wright and Peter Weyand at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative
Zoology found that it takes 30 per cent more energy to run backwards than
forwards. They say most of this difference is due to the fact that the runner’s
feet spend less time on the ground in a backwards gait, meaning that their leg
muscles have to kick into play faster. At high speeds, more muscles are needed
to support the awkward position (The Journal of Experimental Biology,
vol 204, p 1805).