Nordic Walk Now!

By Suzanne Nottingham, LEKI Employee & Nordic Walking Instructor

As featured in the APRIL 2008 Newsletter

LEKI

As one of the single most beneficial types of exercise, Nordic walking can improve any person’s health and fitness level. In 2000, Nordic walkers came out of the woodwork in Europe. Finally the message spread to North America where thousands of people (soon millions) discovered the health benefits.

Using LEKI Nordic walking poles for fitness or stability facilitates a full body experience, an interaction with the pull of gravity that creates bone density in the entire body, not just through the lower extremity. Poles spread out your effort to balance strength demands throughout the entire body.

From the frailest human being to top-level athletes, use of Nordic walking poles represents an evolution of human movement - to reinforce the extremely necessary human condition of moving with excellent posture and at the same time training the heart. The benefits of simply walking at a leisurely pace - let alone a faster, harder pace - are compelling for back health, weight loss and so much more. Use is ageless and without limits. 

Lightweight, adjustable poles create the opportunity to engage the upper body via a small, but intense resistance mechanism - the rubber tip - which sends instant biofeedback to postural muscles to keep the structure upright. The more proficient your technique is, the more opportunity exists to create a resistance workout that pushes your limits, if that’s your thing!

Many health benefits are associated with Nordic walking. Some of these benefits include cardiovascular fitness and heart health, postural development, bone density, injury recovery, pain management, mobility, stability, balance and body awareness. Many people say that Nordic walking is a “movement meditation” and that it produces endorphins similar to the “runner’s high.”
           
Nordic walking is done on both paved surfaces and off-road in dirt, gravel, sand or grass. There are two types of tips. Rubber tips engage paved surfaces, and underneath is a carbide tip for any other surface. All you need is an open walking path four feet wide or more. (Nordic walking poles are not made for single-track hiking trails. That’s another product called “Trekking” poles.) 

Any person who wishes to move healthier can learn to Nordic walk. It does require skills, so a lesson is recommended. A good pair of poles can cost from $99 to $200, but once you make your initial investment of time to learn and money for poles, it’s free. You keep them in your car and simply go when you can!

Despite the fitness industry’s efforts for 20 years to “inspire the world to fitness,” over 80% of the US population still doesn’t exercise! Who do you know that needs to improve back health, lose weight or needs poles not for “fitness,” but rather to simply walk to the mailbox? Nordic walking is a realistic option path to help change that staggering percentage of non-exercisers. To Nordic walk now is an investment in your ability to get and stay active into your golden years!

And for those who already walk for fitness, once you Nordic walk, you’ll never want to fitness walk the old-fashioned way again!

To learn more about Nordic walking and find an instructor near you, please visit www.nordicwalknow.com. To learn about high quality pole products, please visit www.leki.com.

--SN