Adolescents' energy cost in marching band

The primary purpose of this study was to examine adolescents' energy cost in a marching band. High school marching band participants (N=15) completed five 3-min. stages of treadmill marching, using a 57.2-cm stride length (typical standard of eight steps per five yards) as follows: without instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 1): without instruments at 91 m x min.(-1) and 160 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 2); carrying instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 3); carrying instruments at 91 m x min.(-1) and 160 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 4); and playing instruments at 75 m x min.(-1) and 132 steps x min.(-1) (Stage 5). Mean heart-rate response to an actual parade performance was similar to the mean Stage 5 treadmill heart rate (n=6). With regard to a high school marching band, these results suggest that energy demand for marching cadences approximates 4.5 and 6.0 metabolic equivalents for moderate and fast paces, respectively.