What Is Nordic Walking? Here’s Why You Might Want to Try It
Regular walking has been used for ages as a tool for overall health, cardiovascular fitness, or simple enjoyment of the outdoors. Building off of the popularity and relative accessibility of walking, the Nordic style gives you the option to turn the intensity up a notch.
Nordic walking poles are a sight to see, but they serve a major cardio purpose. This simple accessory provides you with the necessary support to crank up your heart rate by bringing your upper body exercise to the forefront of your intensive strolls. From Finland and beyond, here are all the nitty gritty details on Nordic walking.
What Is Nordic Walking?
Nordic walking is an extension of the expected walking technique but incorporates Nordic poles into the movement. When you perform the motion correctly, you mimic a very similar pattern as cross-country skiers but on dry land. Nordic walking then becomes a much more full-body bodybuilding workout than conventional walking by intentionally harnessing your arm swing.
Nordic walking is not the same as supportive walking or hiking poles. There is a technique involved that aims to increase the intensity, jack up your heart rate, and even burn additional calories. However, Nordic walking is extremely beginner-friendly and much like it’s cross-country skiing counterpart, it is very low impact.
Benefits of Nordic Walking
Nordic walking is an effective cardiovascular training tool. It helps improve your cardiovascular health and performance. This method also tends to come with a great community aspect, providing a sense of belonging and a social setting for exercise.
Cardiovascular Performance
Conventional walking is an underrated method of improving cardiovascular performance. Particularly for beginners with little training experience, walking is a massive opportunity for gains. Nordic walking is similarly overlooked but adds a lot of intensity using the Nordic walking poles and an increased pace.
[Read More: 10 Science-Backed Benefits of Walking for Strength Athletes]
Nordic walking has been shown to improve cardiovascular performance measures like resting heart rate and maximal oxygen consumption. (1)
Health Metrics
Nordic walking is demonstrably beneficial for many different populations, including those with coronary artery disease, of older age, or people with obesity. The relative accessibility of Nordic walking provides a massive opportunity for many people to improve metrics such as resting heart rate, blood pressure, body mass, and quality of life. (1)(2)(3)
The relatively low impact, low barrier to entry, and self-selected intensity that Nordic walking allows is a great chance to pursue overall health.
Community
There is a lot to be said about the social aspect of fitness. The accountability, sense of belonging, and connection you gain from a solid workout community is a tremendous benefit alongside the physical. Numerous worldwide Nordic walking associations act as resources for technique and education, competition, and community across all stages of life.
What You Need for Nordic Walking
Nordic walking is simple to get started. All you’ll need is a pair of walking poles, appropriate footwear, and a scenic route.
Nordic Walking Poles
Nordic walking poles are a specifically designed tool for your Nordic walking technique. While there are similar-looking accessories such as trekking poles, these are not quite right for the job.
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A good pair of Nordic walking poles are specifically designed to help with propulsion during walking, whereas trekking poles are designed for rockier terrain. Take some time to find the correct pole length for your body and you’re all set.
Footwear
Nordic walking is not an exclusively outdoor event. However, indoors or outdoors, it’s important to protect your feet. Finding and sizing an appropriate walking or running shoe for indoor or outdoor Nordic walking provides grip and stability, helping to avoid any discomfort from repeated use.
A Route
Nordic walking is a wonderful way to spend outdoors. Finding a relatively flat, scenic route goes a long way toward encouraging consistency and bringing a little natural stress relief to your workouts.
With that in mind, you can also bring your Nordic walk indoors on a track (in this case, remember to bring some rubber tips for your walking poles!).
[Read More: Is 10,000 Really the Magic Number? The Science Behind Taking 10,000 Steps a Day]
In either case, you’re ideally looking for a long enough route to challenge your cardiovascular endurance. You want it free of any treacherous terrain to help maintain the brisk pace your Nordic walk aims to achieve as well.
Perfect Your Nordic Walking Form
Nordic walking is a combination of conventional walking with poles in order to pick up the pace. Here’s how to teach yourself Nordic walking.
- When done correctly, Nordic walking should mimic cross-country skiing. This means that each stride should be paired with your arm swing to take advantage of your Nordic walking poles.
- During your normal walking stride, you would typically have a contralateral (opposite) arm swing as the leg that is in the lead position. For example, when your right leg is planted and leading, your left arm would be forward as well. The major addition during Nordic walking is that the pole is a part of this equation.
- During each stride, firmly plant your contralateral pole alongside your body, about half the distance between each leg. Ideally, the pole plants into the ground at a moderate backward angle dead center between your legs.
- As you complete each stride, allow your hand to open and the pole to release from your grip. The wrist strap should keep your pole from falling to the ground. Squeeze down on the opposite side pole now that it is in the forward position and complete the same striding technique.
Walk It Off
If you’re intrigued by the clicking of walking poles as groups of happily striding Nordic walkers buzz by you, you’re not alone. Here are the biggest things you need to know:
- Nordic walking involves walking with Nordic poles, using intentional arm swinging and upper body effort to increase pace and full-body involvement.
- From boosting cardiovascular health and performance to a social support system or simply accountability, Nordic walking checks all the benefits boxes.
- You’ll need Nordic walking poles, a sturdy and comfortable pair of walking or running shoes, and a long course to tread.
- You will stride with your limbs working contralaterally — when your left leg is stepping forward, your right arm is pushing back.
- Make sure you’re using the poles to increase your upper body involvement in walking, ensuring that your entire body is in on the boosted speed.
FAQs
If you’re still curious about Nordic walking, here are some frequently asked questions to consider.
The Nordic walking technique is an extension of conventional walking. It adds in Nordic walking poles and allows you to mimic cross-country skiing techniques on dry land. This added upper body engagement helps to recruit your full body, increase your pace and stride length, and adds a new twist to an accessible form of cardiovascular training.
Nordic walking sticks are one of the focal points of Nordic walking. These sticks assist with balance and propulsion during your Nordic walk, which allows it to become distinct from conventional walking. They are used to drive into the ground, actively engaging much of your upper body musculature to push yourself forward at a faster pace.
There are numerous health benefits to Nordic walking across many populations. Nordic walking is fantastic for improving heart health and boosting overall quality of life. It is an accessible form of training for many older adults, people with obesity, or anyone looking to spice up stale cardiovascular training.
References
- Tschentscher, M., Niederseer, D., & Niebauer, J. (2013). Health benefits of Nordic walking: a systematic review. American journal of preventive medicine, 44(1), 76–84.
- Bullo, V., Gobbo, S., Vendramin, B., Duregon, F., Cugusi, L., Di Blasio, A., Bocalini, D. S., Zaccaria, M., Bergamin, M., & Ermolao, A. (2018). Nordic Walking Can Be Incorporated in the Exercise Prescription to Increase Aerobic Capacity, Strength, and Quality of Life for Elderly: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Rejuvenation research, 21(2), 141–161.
- Nagyova, I., Jendrichovsky, M., Kucinsky, R., Lachytova, M., & Rus, V. (2020). Effects of Nordic walking on cardiovascular performance and quality of life in coronary artery disease. European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine, 56(5), 616–624.
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