Nordic Walking Season is Cranking
By Rocky Thompson on August 23rd, 2006
According to SNEWS, Nordic Walking has found a foothold in the US and the sport is continuing to grow. For people younger than 60, Nordic Walking is just walking with ski poles. Excel and Leki make special lightweight rubber-tipped poles for strutting the sidewalks which are supposed to offer Nordic Walkers an upper body workout. Ski shops in the Midwest are hoping it catches on so they actually have something to sell if it’s another bad year for snow.
Woah wait a minute. There are people out there that walk with poles? I don’t get it. Where are these people walking to, and what do they do with the poles when they get there?
are they walking to the bar for $.99 summits?
you know what the hardest part about Nordic walking is dont you??
yeah thats right its the same as rollerbliding.
Believe it, or not, Nordic walking is probably the best whole-body exercise around, short of cross-country skiing that is.
Personally, I would be cross-country skiing all the time, but living in Virginia can only do it for a relatively short time each year.
In short, don’t knock it, ’till you try it.
If you already walk, power walk, hike, or run, Nordic walking will enhance your fitness level. In addition, walking with poles is a lot more interesting and engrossing than plain walking.
It also saves wear and tear on your legs and knees, while providing balanced exercise for both your lower and upper body.
Haven’t you ever wondered if it would be possible to also exercise your arms, back, abs, shoulders and chest, while walking? As it turns out – you CAN!
When you finish your Nordic walk you don’t have to hit the weight room. You don’t have to get down and do ab crunches. You’ve got it all done in one nice package: cardio, upper and lower body workout, while burning more (up to 500 per hour) calories.
One of the advantages of Nordic walking is that you get more exercise, with less of a perceived effort, which should help you stick with the activity.
Find out during our free demo sessions and classes why cross-country skiers (and now Nordic walkers as well) are considered to be some of the best-conditioned athletes around, or simply get some poles and read the many instructional articles on this site and learn to Nordic walk on your own.
You could, I suppose get by by modifying a pair of ski poles, or making something from scratch, but well-designed Nordic walking poles are really a much better and a more elegant solution.