Take a silly walk?

[TheVat]

https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-072833

Abstract

Objective To compare the rate of energy expenditure of low efficiency walking with high efficiency walking.

Design Laboratory based experimental study.

Setting United States.

Participants 13 healthy adults (six women, seven men) with no known gait disorder, mean (±standard deviation) age 34.2±16.1 years, height 174.2±12.6 cm, weight 78.2±22.5 kg, and body mass index 25.6±6.0.

Intervention Participants performed three, five minute walking trials around an indoor 30 m course. The first trial consisted of walking at a freely chosen walking speed in the participant’s usual style. The next two trials consisted of low efficiency walks in which participants were asked to duplicate the walks of Mr Teabag and Mr Putey (acted by John Cleese and Michael Palin, respectively) in the legendary Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks (MoSW) skit that first aired in 1970. Distance covered during the five minute walks was used to calculate average speed. Ventilation and gas exchange were collected throughout to determine oxygen uptake (V̇O₂; mL O₂/kg/min) and energy expenditure (EE; kcal/kg/min; 1 kcal=4.18 kJ), reported as mean±standard deviation.

Main outcome measures V̇O₂ and EE.

Results V̇O₂ and EE were about 2.5 times higher (P<0.001) during the Teabag walk compared with participants’ usual walk...