What is Nordic Walking and Why Should it Interest Me?

Quite simply, Nordic walking could be described as WALKING PLUS, or even EXTREME WALKING.

Unlike walking, or even running, Nordic walking, or walking with poles provides you with a whole-body exercise - lower body, upper body, plus a great aerobic workout - comparable to cross-country skiing

In most countries the English name - Nordic walking - has been adopted and kept, but the Swedes have dubbed it stavgång, in Norway and Denmark it is stavgang, and to the Estonians it is kepikönd.

If you already walk, power walk, hike, run, or cycle, Nordic walking will enhance your fitness level. In addition, walking with poles is a lot more interesting and engrossing than plain walking.

It also saves wear and tear on your legs and knees, while providing balanced exercise for both your lower and upper body.

Haven't you ever wondered if it would be possible to also exercise your arms, back, abs, shoulders and chest, while walking? As it turns out - you CAN and it isn't difficult to learn.

Nordic walking poles are really a very portable gym - probably the most compact and efficient anywhere - with the added advantage of being able to exercise in the great outdoors, instead of in a stuffy and boring exercise facility.

In addition, studies show that exercising outside can burn up to 30 percent more calories than doing the same workout indoors.

When you deal with Nordic Walking US, you can be assured of a customer service and experience that has been always rated as second to none.

Press "read more" below for more.

Our Nordic Walking Pole Adviser

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Had to give in to MySQL limits. Since the database exceeded the pre-set limit, the continuation of the diary resides here now. Link to the first and second parts of the diary are just below.

Results, so far - with no dieting, after 3,554 miles - lost 30 pounds and 5.5% body fat since May 16, 2005, when this diary was started. Just think what kind of results YOU could achieve with Nordic walking and a rational diet! Have also gotten faster, as proven by steadily tumbling personal records.

The main advantage of this diary is that it helps me maintain my goal of Nordic walking 15 miles per week as a minimum and 25 + miles as my optimum weekly total.

The 1st part of The Nordic Walking Diary

The 2nd part of The Nordic Walking Diary

We would like to announce - and this unfortunately applies only to local purchases - a free, 1.5-hour introductory Nordic walking lesson for purchasers of two, or more pairs of Nordic walking poles.

This is a perfect opportunity to learn the basic technique absolutely free of charge.

We would like to emphasize, that this offer applies only within a 30-mile radius from our headquarters in Vienna, Virginia.

Arrangements will be made by email and/or telephone after qualifying purchases.

The classes will be held in a mutually agreeable location in the Washington, DC area.

These are just some of the routes and places in the immediate area that I Nordic walk most often.

Among them: Great Falls National Park, Virginia, the C&O Canal towpath, on the opposite bank of the Potomac River, the W&OD Trail, Burke Lake, Sky Meadows State Park and different places in the Shenandoah National Park, including of course Old Rag Mountain, a great hike, about which you can read elsewhere on this site.

Just type in "Old Rag Mountain" in the search box in the upper-left.

I am re-posting this closer to the top, as it is always an issue of interest

Should we worry about brands, advertising hype and the like?

As far as brands, most reputable companies usually manufacture well-designed, reliable products. That's why in our store at this time you will find exclusively Swix and LEKI Nordic Walking Poles.

Swix, headquartered in Lillehammer, Norway has been the undisputed leader in the cross-country skiing arena for decades and the same expertise, cutting-edge technology and quality is evident in their Nordic walking products.

LEKI - a German company is a leading manufacturer of quality hiking, skiing and trekking poles and Nordic walking poles as well. LEKI poles have certain unique features, making them very attractive indeed.

Most reputable manufacturers will not drown you in hype, so the next concern should be your body type, the kind of walking that you intend to do and the depth of your pocketbook.

Beware of unknown manufacturers and super low prices. You do want your poles to be durable, light and well-designed, don't you?

On the other hand, you can buy excellent and well-designed Nordic walking poles for just over $100. I assure you that if you decide to stick with the sport, you will be much happier with quality poles, than with some off-brand cheapos.

Also, don't believe the hype out there that adjustable poles are inferior and/or unsafe, or that Nordic walking is complicated and difficult to learn. I have taught rank beginners the basic technique in as little as 15 minutes.

Although we use and carry in our store several great one-piece Nordic walking poles models, I assure you that well-designed and built adjustable poles, such as the LEKI models that we offer are great, solid and perfectly safe poles, which offer certain undeniable advantages as well.

Our store

We would like to wish all of our friends, readers, customers and Nordic walkers all over the world all the very best in 2008.

The new year will mark four years, since Nordic Walking US begun operating from Vienna, Virginia.

Since then we have conducted dozens of free demos and classes, have answered thousands of inquiries about the sport and have set hundreds of new Nordic walking converts on their path to better fitness, health and towards a thoroughly enjoyable activity.

We sincerely hope that those of you, who haven't tried Nordic walking as yet, will decide to take up the sport in 2008.

Remember, we are here to help you reach your goals.

Happy New Year!

The look and content of gift lists for recreational athletes and fitness wannabes is evolving and ever-changing from year-to-year.

In 2002, it was all about the Calloway 2-Ball putters, and multi-colored Nalgene water bottles were as good as gold in 2003. In 2004, Christmas lists featured "We Got Roy" T-shirts, and NBA rookie LeBron James' Nike Zooms.

But Stingray Bikes and Princess Alexa dolls are as stale as old bread, and all of the elliptical trainers, exercise bikes and other fitness equipment are gathering dust in people's basements, closets and garages.

One item which seems to have inched its way up many people's Christmas lists are Nordic walking poles. Yes, the greatly (in the past) underrated, compact, relatively inexpensive and so very effective fitness devices.

For those, who would much rather exercise in the great outdoors, instead of their living rooms, or basements, or in stuffy gyms, Nordic walking offers the optimal combination of both aerobic and muscle exercise for the entire body.

Isn't it time for you and your loved ones to join this great trend, which has already taken Europe by storm?

Saturday, December 1 11:00am Saturday, December 8 11:00am

Photo of me by the Capitol Christmas tree, taken by Noel Paige

This event was organized by Nordic Walking US, together with UC Tours.

We met at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro stop – on Maryland Ave. near the Air & Space Museum (Blue or Orange Line).

Duration: 1.5 hours

Poles were not required for this demonstration. Loaner poles were provided for the first 6 walkers to register.

Swix, LEKI and other brand poles were also available for sale before and after demonstration.

UC Tours Calendar

Cultural Tourism DC Calendar

On December 8 we walked through the middle of the Mall, towards the National Gallery of Art skating rink, then east, to The Capitol, admired the Christmas tree, around the Capitol, by the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress and back towards the Air and Space Museum.

The weather turned out to be much better than expected. Sunny and pleasant. About 49F. Photos coming up soon.

Like many of you I have searched far and wide over the years for a "total" exercise, one which would enable me to exercise nearly all of my body, instead of just separate parts of it.

One of the best ones is cross-country skiing and I would be perfectly happy to do it nearly all of the time. Unfortunately, at least here in northern Virginia we at best get enough snow to ski just a few days out of the year. With the advent of global warming the situation in that regard seems to be getting steadily worse, rather than better.

I have done quite a bit of hiking, running, cycling and for a great upper body workout, also kayaking.

The problem with all of the above - although they are all fantastic activities - is the fact that the first three can provide a great lower body exercise and the last a super upper body workout, but neither is able to exercise up to 90 percent of the body's muscles, the way that cross-country skiing and Nordic walking do.

Would the fact that we are having summer-like temperatures in Virginia in October, along with an extreme drought and the melting ice caps be enough? Or maybe the well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize awarded this year to IPCC and Al Gore?

I wonder if the happily polluting Chinese and Indian economies, or the millions of SUV-driving Americans would agree that the present bout of global warming is at least partly caused by humans?

Some say that about 1,000 years ago the Vikings encountered a “Green Land” in Greenland and that the climate fluctuations are nothing new and are simply what Mother Nature does, even without our input.

That’s at least partly true, with an important caveat: The present warming trend is proceeding much faster than all of the previous ones and unless we help Mother Nature by very quickly reducing the emissions that we are so enthusiastically creating and pumping into the atmosphere, there’s a distinct and frightening possibility that unlike the previous Earth cooling and warming episodes, the present trend might become simply irreversible.