Click photo to enlarge
Sandro Roth (top) sets the pace in demonstrating the nordic
walking technique at the Dunedin Botanic Garden recently.
Photo by Jane Dawber.
If you encounter someone - or a group of people -
striding along with a pair of slim poles, you've probably come
across participants in a new exercise and fitness technique
called nordic walking. Charmian Smith joins a beginners' group
and becomes hooked.
Sandro Roth demonstrates the nordic walking technique, a sort
of bouncy walk that looks as if he's walking with four limbs
- his arms and poles as well as his legs.
Roth, originally from Switzerland and now national training
manager of the Wellington-based Nordic Academy, was in Otago
recently to introduce people to the technique and train
instructors.
A group of about 10 people gathered for an introductory
course in the Dunedin botanic gardens and we soon found there
was more to Nordic walking than meets the eye.
Those used to tramping with a pole may find it a little more
difficult to get the new technique, he said.
It certainly takes some concentration to get the feet, legs,
arms, shoulders and poles working in sync, but with a few
practice runs up and down one of the lawns most of us got the
basics of propelling the body forward with the poles, which
alway remain facing diagonally backwards, unlike trekking
poles.
"Relax your shoulders," Sandro says.
"Keep your arms straight - think of a hand-shake position;
push from the shoulder not the elbow; push the pole past your
hip; roll the foot through; don't twist your wrist."
There's a lot to remember, but when all comes together
there's a natural ease to it.
Actually, it's a natural cross-walking technique that most of
us have forgotten, but with poles as extensions to the arms.
Sandro leads us through a few warm-up exercises and we set
off on a walk.
Although I walk around the gardens often, this time, to my
surprise, I found myself going up some of the steep tracks
faster and more easily than usual.
As we walk, tuis sing and parakeets squawk in the trees
above, the rhododendrons are in flower, and the occasional
perfume of a flowering shrub impinges on our senses.
Nordic walking is said to be able to create a meditative and
calming effect, and I can see that once the technique becomes
second nature, it could.
However, most of the time I'm concentrating on getting the
left arm and right leg forward at the same time, pushing
through on the pole which lengthens the stride, rolling the
feet from heel to toe, letting go of the pole at the end of
the swing, bringing it forward and grasping it before placing
it back on the ground level with the opposite leg.
Nordic walking poles, unlike normal trekking poles, have a
glove attached so they remain in position even though you are
not gripping them.
We learn techniques for going uphill and downhill, and
double-poling and then do a few strength exercises using the
poles and our body weight to round out the workout.
Then Sandro demonstrates a few advanced, high-intensity,
high-impact techniques for serious athletes, such as Nordic
jogging, bounding, and striding uphill - luckily we don't
have to try these.
I go home afterwards feeling muscles I've not used for a long
time despite regular swimming and yoga, but also feeling the
euphoria of having done a good workout in a glorious setting.
