Nordic walking

Demonstration of Nordic Walking.

Nordic walking is a physical activity and a sport. The activity is preformed with specially designed walking poles similar to ski poles.

History

Nordic walking is defined as fitness walking with specially designed poles. While trekkers, backpackers and skiers had been using that basic concept decades before, the sport wasn't formally defined until the publication of "Sauvakävely" by Marko Kantaneva in 1997. Nordic Walking's concept was developed on the basis of off-season ski-training activity. This concept included the first description of the exercise, the instructions how to do it, the anatomical and physiological reasons to do it, and the specifications of the poles needed.

During the year of publication (1997) the first Nordic Walking poles were produced and marketed by Exel. The term Nordic Walking was coined and became internationally known in 1999 (through an Exel commercial flier).

Commercial flier from 1999, by Finnish company Exel. (Notice the upper-right corner) With this the term Nordic Walking became internationally known and coined simultaneously. ("Sauvakävely eli Nordic Walking", translates into "Sauvakävely or Nordic Walking")

Common misconceptions

While the first fitness walking poles and codified special pole walking techniques were introduced by Exerstrider in the U.S. in 1988, their original specially designed walking poles had little in common with modern Nordic walking poles. These early poles were heavier in design and more similar to Alpine poles with a simple loop strap (or later without straps). Both Exerstriding and Nordic Walking are based on extensive written and proven research work, but the two utilize slightly different techniques and equipment so are commonly misinterpreted as synonymous.

Benefits

Compared to regular walking, Nordic walking - also called poling, pole walking or urban poling, involves applying force to the poles with each stride. Nordic walkers use more of their entire body (with greater intensity) and receive fitness building stimulation not as present in normal walking for the chest, lats, triceps, biceps, shoulder, abdominals, spinal and other core muscles. Nordic walking can produce up to a 46% increase in energy consumption compared to walking without poles. It also has been demonstrated to increase upper body muscle endurance by 38% in just twelve weeks.

This extra muscle involvement may lead to enhancements over ordinary walking at equal paces such as:

• increased overall strength and endurance in the core muscles and the entire upper body
• significant increases in heart rate at a given pace
• increasing vascular pathways and oxygen delivery efficiency
• greater ease in climbing hills
• burning more calories than in plain walking
• improved balance and stability with use of the poles
• significant un-weighting of hip, knee and ankle joints
• provides density preserving stress to bones

Equipment

Nordic walking poles are significantly shorter than those recommended for cross-country skiing. Using poles of incorrect length may add stress to the walker's knees, hips and/or back, diminishing the benefits of walking with poles. Nordic walking poles come in both one-piece, non-adjustable shaft versions, and telescoping two-piece twist-locking adjustable length versions. Nordic walking poles feature either grips with special Nordic walking straps - a kind of fingerless glove, allowing power transmission through the strap and eliminates the need to tightly grasp the pole grips.

Unlike trekking poles, Nordic walking poles come with removable rubber tips for use on hard surfaces and hardened metal tips for trails, the beach, snow and ice. Most poles are made from lightweight aluminum, carbon fiber, or composite materials. Special walking shoes are not required. However there are shoes being marketed as designed for the sport, but comfortable walking, running or trail running shoes work great.

Styles

Nordic Walking in its original form only utilizes one unique, natural style, that is based on Marko's piece.

Although it is commonly perceived that there are many Nordic Walking styles in reality there are different fitness/pole walking styles (but only one Nordic Walking style). Nowadays people distinguish between six principal variables in different styles, which are (a) the location of the pole plant (from close to the front foot to close to the rear foot), (b) shoulder range of motion (from none to considerable), (c) elbow range of motion (from none to considerable), (d) elbow angle at pole plant (from nearly straight to an angle of 90 degrees or less), and (e) pole grip/strap configuration (from strapless poles, simple loops straps, Velcro slings to the true Nordic style fingerless-glove type straps).

Organizations

Over the course of the activities development several organisations have been created to promote Nordic Walking, such as:

• Korea Nordic Walking Federation - KNWF
• World Original Nordic Walking Federation - ONWF
• International Nordic Walking Association - INWA
• (North) American Nordic Walking Association - ANWA
• International Nordic Fitness Sports Association - INFO

See also

• Trekking pole
• Walking stick