According to a recent article in the
register of exercise professionals journal, Nordic Walking is not just another fad and this turned out to be the case when I recently paid a visit to the Folksworth 15 on Sunday the 24th of January with my Nordic Walking poles. Whilst my fellow club runners were intent on pounding the rural roads through Folksworth and surrouding environs through high intensity running activity. I found it particularly inspiring to walk in a Nordic fashion complete with poles to see who might be interested in this fantastic, low impact, high results, activity of Nordic Walking. I set up stall in the community school and soon the race goers started to ask questions. A Riverside Runner said "would you be able to organise a distance walk at a good pace" As my background is endurance a distance walk at a good pace would be well within my capacity so my response was to ask "how far would you like to walk and at what kind of pace?" One Werrington Jogger approached me to say this would be ideal for his wife and he would let her know that
Learn to Nordic Walk classes are now available at Werrington.
Next I found myself chatting to a marvellous man who is over 70 years young, he said "how do the poles differ to trekking poles?" He had some of those at home. "The trekking poles are different and useful in other circumstances and unsuitable for the activity of Nordic Walking, the pole is held a different angle. By contrast the Nordic pole is held an angle that minimises stress through the joints and in turn helps to improve postural imbalances" . This allowed me to offer the sprightly gent an opportunity to have a quick trial session. At the end of this sample session, he said with a big grin " I would like to do a lot more of this. There are some great places to go locally and it would be lovely to walk with other like minded people and I would prefer that than walking alone". He is now looking forward to joining a small group of a similar age at a class due to be launched in Bretton park soon. Other parts of the country have had a lot of success from
Age Concern where Nordic Walking has become widely successful in helping people like Tony to become more active.
Shortly after I met a lady who had Parkinsons Disease and she said "I've been reading about Nordic Walking and how it can help people with Parkinsons " Recent medical publications highlight the facts: "
Nordic Walking improves mobility in Parkinsons ". This lovely lady was keen for me to deliver a talk to her local group about the benefits of this new Nordic activity. As I was an accomplished speaker, a member of a local group,
Anglia Communicators I said I woudl be delighted to offer a talk to this group as requested. What an amazing day, lots of interest from a diverse set of individuals, both men and women a lot of scope to allow others to benefit from this low impact activity which is destined to get big results!
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