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How Fast Is Moderate?
Recommendations for walking for health and fitness often specify moderate walking, as in 30 minutes, 5 times a week, at a moderate speed, effort, or whatever. The question, of course, is what is moderate? Now we have an answer in an article from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. These experts tell us 100 steps a minute is the minimum pace for proper cardiovascular exercise. If you have a pedometer, it's easy to judge your pace. Otherwise, you can just count. (Left, right is two steps.) This comes down to about 3000 steps in that 30-minute walk. For most people, a mile is about 2000 steps. To figure out how many steps you take, use your pedometer on a course you measure with your car's odometer, or do four laps of a quarter-mile track (on the inside lane). No need to be real accurate about any of this.
This pace comes out to 3 miles in an hour, or 20 minutes per mile. I will go along with this as moderate. We used to take 15-minute miles as brisk walking, but I have recently seen brisk defined all the way down to 20 minutes. Moderate walking, and sometimes even slower, will give you many health benefits. Try to go a bit faster to improve fitness. Better yet, do what seems moderate or somewhat hard to you, depending on your goals. (This will change as you get more fit.) Of course, you can go faster for a shorter distance, but will slow down as the distance grows. You can do regular walking sometimes and Nordic walking for your workout on other days. You get more out of Nordic walking for the same pace and distance.
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How to Breathe
People often wonder about how to breathe correctly when doing a given exercise. Lucky for us, there's no trick to breathing while Nordic walking. Put your hand on your abdomen, just below your waist. Now breathe quietly so that your hand goes out as you inhale, and comes back in when you exhale. Many people breathe high in their chest, but breathing from your abdomen is much more efficient, as it allows more air in to the lungs. This is how you breathe while Nordic walking.
Start by breathing through your nose. This, as you may have read, has the advantage of using your nose to strain pollutants from the air. Still, as you walk faster, you will need more air than you can comfortably take in through your nose. Go ahead and start breathing through your mouth (as well as your nose) when you feel this is more comfortable. Just parting your lips will probably be sufficient. This will happen naturally. There's no need to force any of your breathing. Relax, and above all, don't hold your breath.
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Indoor Walking
Sometimes you may be driven indoors for your exercise due to weather or darkness. The belts on most treadmills are not wide enough for Nordic walking. You may be able to walk at an indoor mall. Some malls open early for mall walking, or you could just go during slow hours. If you work in or otherwise have access to a large building, you may be able to walk the halls. If you have to miss a Nordic walking workout, ride an exercise bike, do some yoga, or do another exercise of your choice so you don't get out of the habit of working out. Get back to Nordic walking as soon as you can. And, don't forget, in winter there's cross-country skiing.
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Benefits of Nordic Walking
The principal benefit of Nordic walking as compared to regular walking is that it engages most of the muscles in your body. This allows you to get more overall exercise in the same amount of time as you do when you do regular walking. This is a great overall conditioning workout for people with limited time for exercise. You burn more calories than with regular walking. You don't use as many calories as when you run for the same amount of time, but it gives you more upper body conditioning than running. Nordic walking, as a low impact exercise, is much easier on your joints than running.
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Clubs and Classes
Many people enjoy working out with others. Nordic walking is a fairly new exercise, so you may have trouble finding a club or class. Talk to your local parks and recreation department and see if they can start one. Any exercise leader should be able to learn Nordic walking without any problem. You only need to get a few friends together to start your own club, or you could ask an existing walking club to include Nordic walkers. A store that sells Nordic walking equipment may be glad to help form a club. Or, take your Nordic walking poles when you go with your friends who are doing conventional walking. (You will go at the same speed.) Don't be surprised if they decide they want to try what you're doing! Here's a new online resource you can check out: www.nordicwalkingclubs.com.
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Learning to Walk
Although Nordic walking is not difficult, you should plan a few practice walking sessions to perfect your technique. Don't be surprised or frustrated if you have trouble coordinating arms and legs at first. If you lose your rhythm, or find yourself swinging the wrong arm forward, just start over. You can carry your poles around obstacles or across streets and resume Nordic walking on the other side. Schedule your first Nordic walking session for about 20 minutes total. Add 5 or so minutes a day until you can work out for 45 minutes. Depending on your time schedule, try to walk for fitness at least 30 minutes most days. You can alternate fitness walking or speed walking with your Nordic walking and vary distances. Or, you may decide to make Nordic walking your regular fitness workout.
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Where to Go Nordic Walking
You can go Nordic walking on city streets or mountain trails. You can use the same streets, sidewalks, running tracks, malls, parks, or trails you would use for fitness walking. Don't walk on ice and try to avoid slippery or unstable surfaces like wet leaves or gravel. With Nordic walking, you can get a good workout in the morning before work, in the evening, or even on your lunch hour. The only equipment you need is your Nordic walking poles and a pair of walking shoes. Use the same safety precautions about terrain, lighting, and traffic that you would use when fitness walking or running.
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Calorie Burning
Adding poles and doing Nordic walking, compared to walking without poles, burns about 20% more calories. This is with the same perceived exertion. This means you can burn significantly more calories without feeling you are working harder. (Ref. Research Quarterly Exercise & Sport, 2002 Sep. 73(3)296) If you improve your technique and/or go faster, you can expend more energy and increase calorie burning even more in the same workout time.
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Choosing Shoes
With so many special purpose shoes around, it comes as no surprise that there are shoes for Nordic walking. ASICS offers waterproof Nordic walking shoes for men and women. Several manufacturers make multipurpose trail shoes promoted for Nordic walking as well as trail walking and general outdoor fitness activities. If you expect to do a lot of Nordic walking on trails, consider these special shoes for stability and comfort. If you are going to do your Nordic walking on streets or urban paths, you can use the same shsoes you use for fitness walking. If you don't have walking shoes you like, consider buying running shoes. They are better ventilated than most walking shoes so your feet won't get too warm when you are Nordic walking.
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Marathon Competition
For the first time, Nordic walking is being included as a separate division in a marathon. The '06 Portland Marathon will allow you to sign up as a Nordic walker. Although walkers participate in most marathons, the Portland Marathon is noted for being especially walker friendly. Individual Nordic walkers or Nordic walking clubs can participate in the walk/run division of other marathons, but they are not timed or awarded prizes separately. The inclusion of Nordic walking at Portland is an indication of the growing popularity of Nordic walking not only as a fitness activity, but as a sport.
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Nordic Walking Poles
You can use your cross-country skiing poles for Nordic walking, but you're much better off with specialized Nordic walking poles. After all, the poles are the only equipment you need for this activity, so you might as well have the right ones. Cross-country ski poles are designed for snow, with baskets and hand straps to aid control. If, by chance, you decide to go Nordic walking on a snowy trail, they could work, but they're not much good on asphalt. Nordic walking poles usually have a rubber tip for walking on streets, tracks, or dirt trails. Some may have metal tips for use on hilly hikes, or you can use trekking poles for that. Don't use poles without the rubber tip unless they have the special metal tip. Check with the manufacturer to be sure. You can choose adjustable or non-adjustable poles for Nordic walking. These poles are more springy and less stiff than skiing or trekking poles. One of their advantages is you can go right out your door and use them for Nordic walking, without traveling to the mountains.
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What is Nordic walking?
Nordic walking is a specific form of walking with the use of poles. People have been using hiking sticks for a long time, and we can be sure that many people tried walking with their ski poles to help with balance. Still, Nordic walking as a sport or fitness activity is fairly recent, It started with cross-country skiers who wanted to say in skiing shape during the summer. There are an estimated half million Nordic walkers in Finland, a country with many cross-country skiers. Nordic walking has become an independent activity, finding popularity in Japan, the United States,and many other countries. Nordic walking now appeals to people who have never strapped on a pair of skis, along with those who want to maintain their cross-country skiing skills.
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Core Training
Nordic walking provides great training for your core muscles. When you use good technique, your core muscles--chiefly abdominals and spinal erectors--automatically contract and release. This improves strength and endurance of the core muscles, and gives a toning and conditioning effect.
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