Nordic walking

I do this once a week for an hour Mersey. It's an Over 50's Class so we don't go mad. Mostly through the local forest etc. I really enjoy it and feel a lot fitter. I think I'd feel a bit self conscious going out with the poles on my own, but in a group we all look daft together, so it's OK.

I think you need a response from Greatnan about this – she is the most experienced of us. However, at the moment she is staying with family in New Zealand and has limited access to the computer. I understand that she slimmed down quite dramatically walking all over French hills and mountains in this way and really loves doing it.

Hi, my daughter has given me unlimited use of her desktop computer! I started walking with poles just over two years ago, in the French Alps, so up very steep tracks. I don't think I could manage most of my walks without them. Not only do they make it so much easier on my knees, hips and back, but they have saved my life on one or two occasions when I would have slid down a steep, slippy hill towards a sheer drop.
I use carbon fibre extendable poles from Decathlon. They are very light but strong and have wrist straps, which I need sometimes because I have to pull myself up some slopes by branches and clumps of grass.
I have lost about two stones since I started walking, and my upper arms are quite slim now.
I walk alone, and rarely meet anybody else as my area is so remote, but most walkers use poles here anyway. I don't walk in towns, but I can understand that you might feel a bit odd walking up the high street with poles!
Good looking with your walking - it is the best exercise there is - free, healthy, out in the fresh air.........
I walked for three hours yesterday in about 30C, here in New Zealand, but it was by a river and I always wear a hat with a peak. What you don't find here is the 'right to roam'', so you have to stick to marked walking paths - no trespassing. I am used to wandering all over the mountains in France, but I have to do as I am told here! Fortunately, there are lots of nature reserves which provide excellent walking.

Not good looking, although I am sure you are, but good luck!

I've got a pair which I bought in Lidle for fluppence, I use them on country walks but I've never been sure if they are just posh walking sticks or if there is a special technique which one should employ. I've found them useful for hooking round brambles and pulling down the branches to get at sloes. And for sticking in a mud patch to help me to 'leap' over.

It seems that there may be some confusion between Trecking and Nordic walking poles. Nordic poles are generally height adjustable, very light, have detachable wrist fixings and shaped rubber feet. Trecking poles (like the ones I got from Aldi for £8.00) have to be gripped all the time and plain round ruuber feet. They also tend to be heavier and generally much cheaper.

For Nordic walking you need to be taught how to do it properly to make sure that you get the most benefit from it. A number of local authorities and health trusts have adopted Nordic Walking as an approved fitness technique. I've done 2 out of 4 Nordic Lessons and also a walk leaders course. You'll have difficulty finding quality Nordic Poles (Leki or Gabel) for much less than £50.

It sounds complicated but it is easy to learn and after a little practice the techniques become instinctive.

Well the Lidl ones are as you described, I've never seen them since and they do have astonishing offers every so often that aren't repeated. They have the wrist straps and are adjustable and very light.

I've never seen a course advertised about how to use them. Is there a very special technique?

I think there are things on utube to help you. The main tecnique that I found took a bit of getting used to is that when you put ypour weight on, say, the right arm you move forward with the left leg; think this is what makes the exercise aerobic. The poles give me a lot more confidence since my knees started to bother me, but I can't use them as often as I like because I can't walk the dog at the same time . Apart from that it doesn't bother me if people think I look daft; I'd even use them to walk to the post office if I felt like it. In fact I might start using them to walk to work [I don't work far from where I live]. I often use them when I'm oop north and walking on the beach, shouting to passing people 'am I at the North Pole yet?'

I found quite a lot of videos on Youtube. Most of them emphasise that you need them adjusted to the right height (so that your fore-arms are parallel to the ground), that you put you hands through the loops from underneath, so that the loops are round the top of your wrist, that you swing your arms naturally with opposite arm going forward from the leg that you are stepping onto, take reasonable length steps, and so on. The wrist thing means that you don't have to grip hard, they won't get away.

But one brash US machoman was enthusiatically demonstrating them with giant steps, and fully extended poles with both hands stuck up in the air to hold the top, and not using the loops at all. I wish I could have asked what happened if he dropped one and it slid downhill away from him?

I have used mine for a long time I really find they take the weight off my back joints. Also very useful for balancing when crossing streams, steep slopes, seeing how deep the mud is. Testing ice on ponds.
I use them even if going more than a couple of miles on the flat now just to reduce joint strain.

They really should be used without the rubber bung on the end though which a number of people do not do.
This ?tungsten tip will grip very well on rocks ice etc and stop a lot of slips. The bung is to protect floors which the tip would ruin.

tegan if you remove the upper brain so that you are only left with the primitive brain, the natural reflex is right foot with left arm and vice versa

This why a walking aid should be used in the opposite hand to the problem lower limb. If I see the opposite at tribunals it's sows doubt.

ooh; does that mean that my brain isn't primitive?? Or the fact is that I can't work it out thus don't have a brain at all [which is most likely]. And does that also account for the fact that I can't read maps either? [I need an excuse for that one which has annoyed people I'm navigating for on numerous occasions including my ex who taught me to drive so's he could navigate but I always got a headache whenever we had to travel somewhere; which is yet another reason why he's my ex...].

Look at a chimp when he runs, or a gorilla. They do the same

Trying to work it out means that you are not letting your body do it naturally. Walk along casually and let your arms swing around loosely without forcing a "quick march". The opposite arm will swing forward naturally to balance you. If you had a pole in it, the pole would swing too.

Beautifully put!

I find it impossible not to swing the arm opposite to the moving leg and I think it would look very unnatural to be moving both the arm and the leg on the same side. I have removable rubber tips for walking on metalled roads but I also like a sharp point for digging into soil and ice.
My poles don't have a hooked handle, which I do miss sometimes, for hooking over branches and hauling myself up.
I paid about 30 euros each for my poles.
Yesterday, I had to cross a river as the bank on my side was completely overgrown and impassable. I took off my trainers and tied the laces together and slung them round my neck, and the poles made it very easy to balance on the stepping stones.

How deep was it? I hope you're a strong swimmer!

It was only a couple of inches but fairly fast flowing and plenty of odd shapes stones to negotiate. I can swim for hours when snorkeling, but I was not wearing my face mask and fins yesterday!