This isn't April 1, so: I'm sorry, but this is just ... silly. Our normal walking gait evolved to be efficient for our anatomy. Of course any variation is going to be less efficient and therefore better exercise. The whole point of exercise is to move inefficiently so that your muscles have to work harder in a given span of time than they otherwise would. There is nothing special about silly walks in this regard. You can be inefficient without being silly, it's just hard to be silly without being inefficient.
I was going to comment "This research was commissioned by the Ministry of Silly Walks", but Monty Python and that sketch are specifically mentioned in the paper as inspiration!
I have a slightly silly walk I use. I call it the ASIMO walk. It's a deliberate walk with the knees very slightly bent in the manner of an ASIMO robot, with an eye to taking the load off my knee joints (which bear the brunt of it if I lock out as normal) and strengthening the stabilizer muscles around my knees, to better preserve the joints as I age. Recovery from knee replacement is a stone cold bitch and I'd rather not endure that if I can avoid it.
He may have been advised to do so by his PT to prolong the lives of his joints and to strengthen his muscles during recovery. Artificial hips and knees are durable but they don't last forever and are subject to wear.
>Conclusions: For adults with no known gait disorder who average approximately 5000 steps/day, exchanging about 22%-34% of their daily steps with higher energy, low efficiency walking in Teabag style—requiring around 12-19 min—could increase daily EE by 100 kcal.
