- For every one percent increase in trial variability, there was a rise in energy consumption.
Reaching 10,000 steps daily is a widely sought-after benchmark in the fitness community for many individuals.
Many professionals propose a faster and less labor-intensive approach to shedding pounds is quite effective.
Research indicates that walking with an uneven gait can help burn more calories than maintaining a consistent step pattern.
US researchers who monitored the movements of 18 healthy adults found that for every one percent increase in gait variability, there was a 0.7 percent rise in energy expenditure.
The results demonstrated that uneven strides make a modest yet substantial contribution to the metabolic cost of walking, the researchers pointed out.
The team did not measure the calories that the participants burned.
Amherst stated: 'I believe it would be reasonable to assume that greater variations in stride length, when walking more frequently, would lead to an increase in your metabolic rate.'
Under the study, the volunteers — averaging 24 years of age and 70.5kg (11st 1lb) in weight — were instructed to walknormally for five minutes on a treadmill.
A motion capture system captured their average step length at a moderate pace of 1.2 meters per second.
They then manipulated their strides during a second 5-minute treadmill walk by illuminating the spot where they wanted the participants to step.
Extremes ranged from five to 10 per cent shorter and longer than the average stride length.
All participants also wore a mouthpiece that monitored their carbon dioxide production rate. This rate tends to increase with physical exertion.
When individuals need to switch quickly from a short-distance step to a longer one, or vice versa, their muscular contraction and metabolic expenditure may increase, experts suggest.
According to their data, increasing step length variability by 2.7 per cent would result in a 1.7 per cent boost to the metabolic cost of walking.
'Variability in the length of each step makes a moderate, yet meaningful contribution to the amount of energy expended during walking.'
The findings could have the most relevance to older adults, particularly those with neurological conditions, given they walk with 'greater step length variability', they said.
Researchers point out that adjusting lengths in increments of 5 percent is 'distinct from real-world gait variations'.
Individuals "still continue to struggle with maintaining accuracy when adjusting their stride lengths without additional assistance," they pointed out.
In future studies, it would be beneficial to measure the accuracy of footplacement and the activity of muscles while performing a variety of comparable virtual simulations.
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