What is it about?
This study assesses how much energy adolescent girls expended when walking on a treadmill compared to overground at step rates representative of slow, moderate and fast walking speeds. The study provides an insight into the differences in step rate/ speed and energy expenditure between treadmill and overground walking with regard to establishing step based recommendations in a youth population.
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Why is it important?
There are a number of advantages in utilizing a treadmill to assess walking such as it is not limited by space, speed and environmental conditions. However, there is an assumption that treadmill walking is equivalent in energy cost to overground walking. It is therefore important to assess if walking on a treadmill is equivalent to walking overground to inform future research protocols investigating the quality of walking required for health.
Perspectives
This study is part of a series of studies undertaken to inform how to assess walking with regard to current physical activity guidelines in a youth population. Further, it adds to the limited youth data on cadence and to our knowledge, this is the first youth study to provide direct measures of walking energy expenditure and cadence measured by real time direct observation overground in an adolescent population. It is hoped that this study may be used to inform future research protocols investigating the quality of walking required for health.
Mhairi MacDonald
Edge Hill University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Real World, Real People: Can We Assess Walking on a Treadmill to Establish Step Count Recommendations in Adolescents?, Pediatric Exercise Science, May 2019, Human Kinetics,
DOI: 10.1123/pes.2018-0213.
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