Roger Lohr

Photos: Pete Edwards, SKIWALKING.COM

Over 17 million Europeans are walking with special Nordic ski walking poles (all ages and all fitness levels) as a fitness activity that improves the benefits of the typical walking campaign. For those who are unfamiliar, Nordic walking is a fitness recreation that combines walking with specially designed poles to engage the upper body muscles. It can be practiced for exercise and wellness on neighborhood and city sidewalks, mountain trails, city parks, sandy beaches and on hiking trails.

Nordic walking burns up to 40% more calories than regular walking. Using the Perfect Length Poles automatically improves walking posture. Walking with the Perfect Length Poles tricks us into standing taller and helps to radically reduce the stress to the shins, knees, hips, and back. Nordic walking is ideal for athletes, kids, adults of all ages, and even those with balance issues.

Pete Edwards of SKIWALKING.COM LLC has been coaching runners and skiers of all ages and fitness levels for over 40 years. Edwards is a former ski school director, ski coach, running coach and the owner-founder-coach of his company headquartered in Empire, Michigan. He has also introduced Nordic walking to thousands of Americans through Nordic walking clinics, radio interviews, newspaper interviews, and TV interviews. Hosting Nordic walking clinics is extremely enjoyable for Edwards, and he especially likes hosting Nordic walking clinics for MS, Parkinson’s, and diabetes support groups, plus Wounded Warrior Programs.

Nordic walking can help individuals with bad or newly repaired knees, bad or new hips, back problems, balance, and other issues. A SkiWalking.com customer asked if it would help improve her balance problems stemming from an inner ear issue. By using the correct length poles, she was able to navigate even the roughest terrain with balance and security provided by the poles.

Nordic walking has a winning combination of improved posture, unique four-wheel-drive-like action, and shock absorbing benefits. Nordic walking poles can help individuals with balance issues, knee issues, hip issues, back issues (including those with rods in their back), weight issues, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), diabetes, neuropathy, arthritis, bursitis, scoliosis, lumbar stenosis, fibromyalgia syndrome, post-polio, osteoporosis, stroke recovery, cancer recovery, and other limitations to walking. Nordic Walking is getting thousands of Americans off the couch, outside, walking safely, and helping to effectively launch much-needed walking campaigns.

The perfect length poles can actually trick us into walking with a super straight back and better walking posture which is biomechanically a good thing. This improved walking posture, when combined with the unique four-wheel-drive type action of walking with poles, radically reduces the stress to the shins, knees, hips, and back. Nordic walking is low impact and yet provides a highly effective workout burning more calories and working more muscle groups than regular walking.

Edwards reviews details about Nordic walking from advantages of metal pole tips in the snow and rubber pole tips for walking on pavement to appropriate sizes of pole straps which enable walkers to keeping relaxed fingers so as to avoid gripping the pole too tightly. He suggests walking with a normal stride and gait while planting the poles at an angle.

According to Edwards, one-piece poles are safer, lighter, and much more durable than adjustable, telescoping, or collapsible poles, and he stated, “We recommend quality one-piece poles that won’t collapse unexpectedly.” Using the correct length poles can radically improve balance, stability and gait and there are 32 different lengths of one-piece poles ensure a perfect fit.

Trekking (hiking with poles) and Nordic walking are two different activities that use very different poles and techniques. It may sound silly, but perhaps “walking is not just walking.” The pole angle, weight, grip, and straps are different between trekking and Nordic modes of walking. The Nordic walking pole is designed to allow your hands to relax in order to target the larger wrapping muscles of the back. But using poles of any kind automatically stimulates your spine and all of the muscles around it, even with inefficient technique. When walking, the key postural muscles of the core and upper body are engaged.

I have (email: Roger of XCSkiResorts.com) been a Nordic walker for many years and found the claimed attributes regarding posture and exercise to be true. I have always been in search of a way to decrease the amount of time spent exercising, so I was sold when I heard that using the poles increases caloric burning by as much as 40 percent. Being a cross-country skier, it is easy to quickly master Nordic walking. After a summer of Nordic walking, I noticed a marked improvement in my cross-country ski poling in terms of strength and timing. It also seemed that I increased the amount of forward momentum that was attributable to poling and I was able to pole stronger and longer when skiing.

For more information such as how to start Nordic walking and how to buy poles – contact Pete Edwards, the owner and founder at WWW.SKIWALKING.COM   

If uncertain about Nordic walking for your health level, check with your doctor. For additional specific information and exercise plans for Nordic walkers, see the human kinetics book entitled Nordic Walking for Total Fitness by Suzanne Nottingham and Alexandra Jurasin which has got it all covered. Nordic Walking for Total Fitness is available in hard cover, ebook or PDF versions from Human Kinetics at www.humankinetics.com or a paperback version at $7.98 from Amazon.