An anti-swing walk, in which the left arm moves with the left leg and right with right, was found to use 26 percent more energy as the muscles had to fight to keep this going, according to the findings published on Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the biological research journal of the Royal Society.
Lifestyle Updated. Would you believe it's your arms? It's true! Go for a short walk and pay attention to how much your arms swing while you walk. Most people never think about how their arms swing when they walk, but they do. So why exactly do they do that? For a long time, scientists thought that swinging your arms while walking served no purpose whatsoever. Their best guess was that it was just some sort of evolutionary afterthought that we just never got rid of. After all, you don't have to move your arms to move your legs.
So why do it? Recently, scientists have completed more advanced research on the issue and discovered that swinging your arms while walking definitely does have a purpose. Like many other bodily functions, it occurs because it's the most natural and efficient way to walk.
In other words, swinging your arms while you walk helps to reduce the total amount of energy it takes to walk. Don't believe it's natural? Try walking without moving your arms. Better yet, try walking while swinging your left arm when you step with your left foot and vice versa.
Both of these practices are unlike the natural method of arm swinging while walking, which is for your left arm to swing forward as you step forward with your right foot. Scientists used those two alternative methods to test whether the natural method of arm swinging while walking was the most efficient. Even more surprising was what they found when they had people walk with their arms in sync with their legs left arm swing forward when stepping forward with the left leg.
Researchers found that normal arm swinging actually doesn't use much energy from the arm muscles. Simply walking causes the body to sway in a way that makes the arms move naturally, like a pendulum. So when you walk, your arms begin to swing naturally without much effort from your arm muscles. The natural movement of your arms also helps to offset a part of the force caused by your legs hitting the ground, keeping your torso and hips from wobbling and twisting too much.
This results in your legs using less energy! Was today's Wonder of the Day a bit of a workout? Keep exploring the following activities with a friend or family member:. Thanks for sharing what you learned, Shreya! We're glad you enjoyed this Wonder, Fellport! We encourage you to head over to What are you wondering?
Thanks, Wonder Friend! Thanks for joining the discussion! You can still learn something new from the videos. Plus, the best part is the text itself! We appreciate your feedback, whyer. We chose the video for this Wonder because it shows lots of people walking, some swinging their arms and others not.
Sometimes our videos are more closely related to the Wonders than other times. Thank you, Wonder Friend! Thanks for commenting, Wonder Friend! We don't have any Wonders about Beyonce right now, but we do have other great Wonders about music! We think you should check them out! Even with the help, they used seven percent more energy than when they walked with a natural swing.
Think of it this way—your arm is like a pendulum; when your leg moves, your body moves, and that movement forces the pendulum to sway.
They do kick in a little effort to keep the swing in control, Brujin says, but the energy savings from swinging more than offset the tiny amount of energy needed to keep the swing going. Tags running technique tips upper body. About the Author. Ashley Lauretta Ashley is a journalist based in Austin, Texas. Learn more about your rights and options. Or click here to opt-out of certain cookies.
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