Nordic walking at Powderham Castle

In August some of the Adventure Group went to Powderham Castle for a two hour taster session which allowed us to learn about the technique of Nordic Walking. This was originally developed in Finland in the mid twentieth century as a way for cross country skiers to train in the summer months. It has many health benefits because it gives you a full body workout, which means that you can burn around 20% more calories compared to walking without poles, release tension in your neck and shoulders, improve your posture and gait, strengthen your back and abdominal muscles and reduce the impact on your joints.

We were given wrist straps to wear and then shown how to attach the special walking poles to the straps because in this type of walking you do not hold on to the poles all the time. We then went through some warm up exercises – if this was to be a full body workout we needed to prepare our muscles! After a short demonstration of the technique we began our first practices. We learnt that the poles are held at about forty five degrees and always behind us – unlike how you hold a more traditional walking stick or trekking pole – and we needed to look ahead, swing straight arms and press through the balls of our feet. Eventually we were all able to grip and release the poles as we swung our arms and use the wrist strap to apply pressure on the pole. It was not at all easy to co-ordinate all those things and already we were starting to notice that we were using upper body muscles that we do not normally employ when walking.

After a short break we progressed to the techniques for going up and down hill and then we were able to make a full circuit of the area before doing some stretching exercises to end our session. Now that we understand the basics of Nordic Walking we are able to join the regular walks that the instructor leads, where we can receive further tuition to improve our technique. If that is not for us then it is hoped that we can incorporate some of the advice into our normal walking style so that we get more benefit from our daily walks.

If you would like to find out more about Nordic Walking and perhaps try it for yourself go to www.exenordicwalking.co.uk

Deborah Wallis

Photo credit: Sue Holden