Is Monty Python ‘Silly Walk’ Good Exercise? Here’s What A Study Showed

And now for something completely different and silly. Doing the “Silly Walk” from the British TV show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” could be much better for you cardiovascular-wise and calorie-burning-wise than simply walking normally. That’s what a study just published in this year’s annual Christmas issue of the BMJ suggested about that silly leg-contorting walk that John Cleese performed on the show. In fact, just 11 minutes a day of Silly Walking could get you past the 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week threshold that the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends. Of course, this depends on how silly your walk really is.

A trio of researchers, Glenn A. Gaesser, PhD, a Professor at Arizona State University, David C. Poole, PhD, Dsc., a University Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology and Physiology at Kansas State University, and Siddhartha S. Angadi, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, conducted the study. They described the “Silly Walk” as “walking in Teabag style,” after the Mr. Teabag character that Cleese played. Walking in Teabag style entails walking alternating high kicks with other leg contortions such as scrunching your knees together and down. This can be a highly entertaining walk. Of course, you should be very careful when telling others that you are into the Teabag style, lest they misinterpret what you are saying.