Want to burn more calories while on a stroll?
It’s a walk in the park when you do this.
New research has found that striding in an uneven cadence can be a game-changer for your fitness.
The study out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst looked into how non-uniform strides played a “significant role” in how a person’s metabolism — a calorie-burning mechanism — increased during walks, the Daily Mail reported.
“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.
Grimmitt and his team looked at the kinesiology — or movements — of 18 healthy, 24-year-old adults who weighed about 155 pounds on average as they conventionally walked on a treadmill for five minutes.
Participants were then instructed to step between 5% and 10% shorter or longer than their normal stride as researchers also measured carbon dioxide levels, which rise while exercising.
The team found that a 2.7% increase in “step length variability” can increase metabolism by 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.
