A new study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that incorporating uneven strides while walking can significantly boost your metabolism, leading to increased calorie burn.
This finding could be a game-changer for those looking to improve their fitness through simple adjustments to their daily routines.
The research, reported by the Daily Mail, focused on the impact of non-uniform strides on metabolic rate during walking. The results suggest that incorporating some variation in your walking pattern may be more effective for burning calories than a perfectly consistent stride.
This news offers exciting possibilities for people struggling to find time for dedicated exercise sessions in their busy schedules. By simply incorporating uneven strides into their walks, individuals may be able to enhance their fitness efforts without a significant time commitment.
"I think it would be fair to assume that more frequent and larger variations in stride length would increase your metabolic rate while walking," study author Adam Grimmitt told the outlet.
Researchers led by Dr Grimmitt investigated the impact of stride variation on metabolism. They studied 18 healthy, 24-year-old adults with an average weight of 155 pounds. The participants first walked on a treadmill for five minutes at their natural stride length.
Next, the participants were instructed to walk with strides that were 5% to 10% shorter or longer than their usual step. During this time, the researchers measured carbon dioxide levels, which serve as an indicator of exercise intensity.
The study's key finding was that a relatively small increase in stride variability (2.7%) resulted in a measurable boost to metabolism (1.7%).
"Step length variability plays a modest, albeit significant role in the metabolic cost of walking," declared the researchers.
Researchers are also looking into how this new information can benefit older populations, more so for energy conservation than calorie burning.
"Future studies should quantify foot placement accuracy and muscle activity across similar virtual projections," the researchers noted.
