Silly Walk from Monty Python turns out to be great for your health

(Image: BBC)

We knew that behaving like a moron is healthy… well, we’ve been hoping for ages. But the fact that there is now scientific evidence for this makes WANT editor Dennis Mons (half sole first class) very happy. Monty Python’s silly walk is very good for you.

It is always nice to know that a lot of time and money is being put into the most important things in life, such as research into the climate crisis and curing cancer. Therefore, it is a good thing that this topic is also good. Is the silly walk healthy? Yes!

Silly walk by Monty Python is an excellent workout

The British Medical Journal published a very entertaining study during the holiday season of 2022: an investigation into the biomechanical implications of the Monty Python ‘silly walk’.

To demonstrate the enormous importance of the silly walk: this is not the first time that research has been done into this. In 2020, researchers at Dartmouth published an analysis of the gait of the two silly walkers – referred to as Putey and Teabag in the sketch – for Gait and Posture magazine.

They measured how much variation there was between steps and found, not surprisingly, that both Monty Python gaits were much more variable than a normal walking gait, but that Teabag’s was much more than Putey’s.

The Americans also jumped on it

These people got it right. They created a super team of researchers from the University of Virginia, Arizona State University and Kansas State University. They went one step further in this new BMJ study.

They collected thirteen healthy adults and had each of them put on equipment to measure how much oxygen they were taking in. They also checked how much energy they expended and how intensely they exerted themselves. At first they all walked around in a normal way and then they tried to imitate Teabag and Putey, Monty Python’s silly walk.

The scientists found that while the Putey walk didn’t expend much more energy than a normal walk, the Teabag walk actually amounted to vigorous exercise.

Based on their findings, the researchers state that doing the Teabag silly walk for 11 minutes daily can provide adults with their recommended amount of exercise.

You just don’t have to act normal

Even if someone is unable to kick their legs in the air and shuffle strangely for about a dozen minutes a day or if they don’t feel like it, the researchers point out that the key is that the movement must be inefficient anyway , from an energy consumption point of view.

Monty Python’s Book of Silly Walks, which is available for purchase at Amazon. (Image: BBC/David Merveille/Amazon)

Anything that makes movements less efficient – such as zigzagging your way around – can achieve the same goal. And since the best exercise is any activity that gives you pleasure, a Monty Python silly walk can sometimes be better than the gym, so you don’t even have to work with tractor tires, Arie Boomsma!

Monty Python’s ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ is er nu als mobile game!

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Iconic ‘Silly Walk’ Monty Python turns out to be great for your health