Nordic Walking Benefits

Nordic Walking provides a complete fitness exercise, working both your upper and lower body at the same time, strengthening your back, legs and arms - whilst scientifically proven to improve the health of your heart and lungs. With some of the body's weight distributed onto your upper body, less impact is felt on the knees and joints and is a perfect exercise for rehabilitation after an injury/accident.

It's also a great way to stay in shape and lose weight, and complements any diet/fitness regime. Plus, meet new and interesting people, as Nordic Walking can be great fun in groups!

To participate in our courses you will be required to fill out a short health questionnaire to assess your physical condition.

Before both our private and group sessions, we will ease into some gentle warm up stretching to get the body limbered up. After the session, we will also engage in some cool down exercises - these will help with good long term joint and muscle mobility.

Eliot and Jodechi are both International Nordic Walking certified instructors and they will guide you through the basic principles to get you started.

Health Benefits

Here are a few more of the documented benefits:

• Burns up to 40% more calories than normal walking
• 30% less stress on the joints - especially the knees
• Increases upper body strength
• Relieves muscle tension of the neck and shoulder region-  lateral mobility of the neck and spine increases significantly
• Strengthens the bones of the lower and upper body and can combat the effects of osteoporosis.
• Burns more than 400 calories an hour - compared to 280 normal walking
• Heart rate is 5-17 beats/minute higher (for example in normal walking heart rate is 130 beats/minute and in Nordic Walking 147 beats/minute i.e increase is 13%)
• Can help lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and contribute to weight loss.
• RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) was the same as walking without the poles.