For most people, forward walking/running involves a slight twist of the knee that stresses the illiotibial band against the lateral aspect of the knee joint. This results in a common overuse injury in runners.

When I get this, it is usually because I have just entered a relatively serious training program from relative rest, something like adding 20+ miles a week. I generally cannot walk forward at all.

However, there is usually no limitation at all to my backwards walking or running, so I spend a week or two not just walking backward as necessary, but also in training, I will do backward track intervals with no IT band pain at all, until I forget about it and try turning around. Anecdotally, it improves recovery time for the IT band, but also causes the opposite problem to flare up in the MCL.

Note that present tense is for convenience. It’s been a long time since I’ve run.