It's become the norm for us to fire off texts or browse while on the go, but there's an unexpected side-effect to it.

For those of you familiar with the infamous Monty Python sketch, the words 'silly walk' may conjure up images of eccentric suited gentlemen, throwbacks from a different era - though no less sillier for it.

Now, owing to the fact so many of us are beholden to our mobile phones , the silly walk has had a modern makeover.

Seeing people with their heads bowed and their thumbs scrolling anywhere and everywhere is the norm. We're certainly guilty of it.

Bumping into others, a lack of spacial awareness, oblivious to obstacles and traffic; The dangers of being glued to our devices are clear. Now there's another unpleasant side-effect and it's damaging our gait.

Not only does texting, swiping scrolling and browsing while walking have slightly anti-social overtones, but it's changing HOW we walk.

Researchers asked 22 volunteers to dial a number on their mobile phone while walking on a treadmill for periods of two minutes.

Motion cameras measured knee flexion, hip movement and leg swing through 62 reflective markers placed on the arms, trunk, pelvis and legs of the walkers.

Sounds simple enough - almost as if it would not make the slightest impact

The results, however, showed something different.

When distracted by their phones, the walkers began to adopt "strange exaggerated strides, their knees bending to peak position on each step, and their ankles fully flexed, as it to give themselves as much chance as possible at stepping over tripping hazards."

It certainly sounds like a silly walk to us...

 

And it's effecting our gait

The change in walk, researchers say, is because the body subconsciously knows there is a higher risk of falling over. Therefore, the larger and more exaggerated movements are used to help in crowded places and compensate for compromised vision.

The researchers also discovered participants made very few errors with using their phone, which suggests it was prioritised over concentrating on walking.

This 'multi-tasking' may seem as if it's saving us time, but this is not in fact the case. The experiment revealed how it took the people texting 26 per cent longer to complete a walking task compared to those who were not distracted by their phones.

So in addition to a silly walk, you're not saving yourself as many precious seconds as you think you are...

 

Mirror UK