Quantifying the benefits of inefficient walking [pdf]

The "teabag walk" as presented here is not what online shooters have brought me to believe it is.

This isn't April 1, so: I'm sorry, but this is just ... silly. Our normal walking gait evolved to be efficient for our anatomy. Of course any variation is going to be less efficient and therefore better exercise. The whole point of exercise is to move inefficiently so that your muscles have to work harder in a given span of time than they otherwise would. There is nothing special about silly walks in this regard. You can be inefficient without being silly, it's just hard to be silly without being inefficient.

I was going to comment "This research was commissioned by the Ministry of Silly Walks", but Monty Python and that sketch are specifically mentioned in the paper as inspiration!

I have a slightly silly walk I use. I call it the ASIMO walk. It's a deliberate walk with the knees very slightly bent in the manner of an ASIMO robot, with an eye to taking the load off my knee joints (which bear the brunt of it if I lock out as normal) and strengthening the stabilizer muscles around my knees, to better preserve the joints as I age. Recovery from knee replacement is a stone cold bitch and I'd rather not endure that if I can avoid it.

This is presumably the BMJ's annual silly article

See also: The famous 1999 Christmas paper on MR imaging of a coitus. (Which won an Ignobel prize.)

https://youtu.be/OVAdCKaU3vY

> Adults could achieve 75 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity per week by walking inefficiently for about 11 min/day

Ha, not so silly now, is it?

>Conclusions: For adults with no known gait disorder who average approximately 5000 steps/day, exchanging about 22%-34% of their daily steps with higher energy, low efficiency walking in Teabag style—requiring around 12-19 min—could increase daily EE by 100 kcal.

I love science.

Ignoble Prize candidate, for sure.

The silly walk is a pure crazy workout.

They were in so many ridiculous things against ahead of the curve. It always amuses me how many of their absurd skits turned into reality.

"And now for something completely different:"

Picture a group of people attending "Silly Walks" classes to get in better shape.

Monty Python inspired laboratory based experimental study

This story has also hit Ars Technica and the Washington Post (at least).