Nordic walking

[JennieL]

Has anybody out there tried Nordic walking?  A week ago I'd never heard of it, but after a kind friend mentioned it I'm finding it a great way to combine dog-walking with aerobic exercise.  I'm just using an old pair of ski poles (set to 115 cm) and my hiking boots.  I wondered if I would need a demonstration or lesson first, but it seems my body knows what to do.  I've only been out 3 times (about 90 minutes today is the longest) but already it seems much more fun than going to the gym.  Next step is to find out if it's helping the dog to lose weight!

[RoyHayward]

Hi Jennie,
Saw Nordic walking on the BBC Countryfile programme quite some time ago and it was repeated a few weeks ago. Looked it up on the web and found a useful site www.go4awalk.com/nordicwalking/index.php -- its got list of walks by county.
Main reason for researching it was that it is banned on some long distance walks where there are lots of walkers -- I take part in the Nijmegen 4 Day Marches in the Netherlands and with 49,000 walkers you can imagine the problems it would cause.
However, it certainly speeds up the walking and gets more muscles working -- you quickly get over the embarrassment of walking with poles on the flat !!
Kind regards,
Roy.

[JennieL]

Thanks, Roy, that site is useful for locating nearby walks, though their rating system seems a bit weird.  I also found http://www.nordicwalking.com useful as you just type in your height in cm and it calculates your pole length.  That told me I didn't need to buy a new pair and the old ski poles set to 115 cm work just fine.  Wish I'd seen the Countryfile programme, though: apparently http://www.NordicWalking.co.uk predicts that 30,000 of us will be striding across the countryside by next year!

[Jacquetta]

The trouble with the name "Nordic walking" is that everybody (in UK) seems to assume it's foreign and needs snow!  I'd suggest we call it pole-assisted walking (PAW) because if you use your walking poles strongly you may already be Nordic walking without using the name   It's really just a matter of having them set long enough, keeping them angled behind you and maintaining the rhythm of left leg forward with right arm, followed by right leg/left arm.  This lets you move faster but also with less effort.  On rough ground the points of trekking poles work fine, but if you're walking on tarmac the tap-tap tap-tap gets annoying so maybe you'd be glad of the angled rubber "paws" (truly ) that can be fitted, and which reduce noise and help to maintain the right angle?  Dunno, I live on the edge of Dunblane so I've never tried them.