Nordic Walking and your health!

Nordic Walking/Urban Poling is an ideal activity for maintaining healthy weight, promotion of overall fitness, and stability.

Nordic walking offloads the lower extremities, which works the upper Healthy Body harder.  While it appeals to elderly individuals with stability concerns or those with arthritic conditions, it can be beneficial for any age group. 

Three ways that physiotherapists use the walking poles to benefit and achieve treatment goals are:

1. Patients who want to improve their general health and fitness.  Compared to standard walking, Nordic walking burns more calories, improves posture, and strengthens core and upper extremities.  This makes it an excellent activity for people who want to get generally more active but maybe can’t or are not interested in running.
2. Patients with chronic conditions.  Pole walking provides support for individuals who have difficulty with their balance or coordination.  The pole walking approach may benefit individuals with chronic conditions who may be then able to exercise independently or with minimal assistance.  People with early Parkinson’s disease or Multiple Sclerosis could be introduced to the exercise indoors one-on-one with a physiotherapist.
3. Patients who are post-surgery and/or in pain.  Using these poles offloads weight from the hips, knees and lower spine and into the upper Healthy Body benefiting clients who have arthritis or low back pain or easing back into activity after surgery.

Although Nordic walking is very beneficial for so many reasons there is proper equipment and technique required to reap these benefits. With any activity it’s important to have the right equipment and instruction and urban poling is no different.  Don’t be tempted to use skiing, hiking or trekking poles, which are designed for totally different purposes.  And technique matters!  Using the correct technique will ensure you are effectively engaging your upper Healthy Body muscles to help in the offloading process and burn those calories! If you would like more information about urban poling please contact us.  We offer equipment and instruction. Check it out with our resident instructor Janet Srutwa.