Their aim was to see actor John Cleese play the apparently boneless Mr. Teabag, head of the Ministry of Stupid Walks, or Mr. Pewtie, Michael Palin’s wannabe silly walker. was to determine the physiological effects of walking around the track. That screwball walk needs work.
Scientists soberly wondered whether the walking form of silly people would increase exercise intensity and calorie expenditure, otherwise turning a simple walk into serious exercise. is part of the orthodox research line-up for the year-end and New Year holidays.
“What we wanted to know was how intentionally inefficient walking affects energy costs,” said Glenn Gaesser, an exercise physiology professor at Arizona State University, Phoenix, who led the new study. He said:
Or, in T-Bag’s words, if your gait becomes “pretty silly,” would the change be beneficial to your body, or would it just threaten your dignity?
To find out, Gaither and his colleagues gathered 13 healthy adults between the ages of 22 and 71 and had them look at the Ministry of Stupid Walk sketches several times.
For those unfamiliar with the skit, T-Bag leads the ministry by example, moving like an unhinged heron, doing high kicks, low bobs, and random knee raises and shakes. To do. A more subdued Mr. Pewty just pulls his left leg just a little bit every other step, which the disapproving Mr. Teabag finds “not particularly silly.”
After imbibing the basics of silly walking, research volunteers donned facial devices to measure their oxygen uptake and began walking a short track in Gesser’s lab. I walked for minutes. They then imitated Mr. Pewty, occasionally hooking his left leg, and he continued for five minutes. Finally, they were completely silly, mimicking Mr. Teabag’s demented egg beater steps and generally giggling for the last five minutes.
The scientists then calculated the walker’s speed and the metabolic cost of each form.
Stupid walking like Mr. T-Bag turned out to be much more difficult than stupid walking, requiring about 2.5 times more energy. Putey-style walking, on the other hand, was comparable to normal walking in terms of energy expenditure, but slower.
In fact, these findings suggest that very silly walking can be so strenuous as to be considered “intense exercise”. If so, they should be able to meet the standard recommendation of at least 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, significantly improving their health and aerobic fitness.
Surprisingly, these findings turned out to provide unexpected confirmation in human evolution, says Humans at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, who studies migration and evolution but was not involved in the study. and evolutionary biology professor David Raichlen.
“One of the key adaptive advantages in human evolution was the development of highly economical bipedal locomotion,” he said.
As a result, walking normally puts little strain on the heart and lungs and doesn’t burn many calories. (Gaesser said he understands that walking is very difficult for people with disabilities, and the study was in no way intended to exclude or ridicule them.)
However, this ease of walking can be disrupted “by biomechanical tweaks such as those found in silly walks,” increasing energy expenditure to move from place to place.
In fact, Gaesser believes the usefulness of silly walking lies in substituting it for the most routine of walks. Are you heading to the bus stop? Get your knees up, he said. Soak your butt. Burn extra calories and improve fitness.
If you’re worried about catching the nasty stare, you can walk ridiculously through the indoor comfort of your home or closed office.
but why? Perhaps we should think of Stupid Walks as not exercises of humiliation, but exercises of practice, and, in short, an opportunity for goofy, unbridled pleasure. Ugur. skip. hop scotch. Freres. Freestyle and smile back at confused onlookers. Invite them to join you, start a conga line of unconventional walks, and together usher in his 2023 healthier and sillier.
Have a fitness question? e-mail YourMove@washpost.com I may answer your question in a future column.
