Community Project: Communities First March 30 2021

“A fantastic example of how Nordic Walking can appeal to everyone, of any age, from any social background, of any ethnicity, and living in any environment. Nordic Walking truly has the ability to appeal to anyone,” says Yvonne Bignall, the British Nordic Walking instructor who led this project with Communities First, a charity based in South London.

Nordic Walkers needed to help with Covid-19 research February 13 2021

Running Through is a research project from the University of Nottingham to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on the running community - and now on the Nordic Walking community too.

Whether you have had Covid-19 or not, this is your chance to contribute to an understanding of the impact the pandemic has had on our community and, ultimately, to recommendations that can be made regarding training load, intensity and infection recovery.

If enough Nordic Walkers participate the researchers will be able to analyse their anonymised research data to answer questions that specifically look at injuries, illness and health of Nordic Walking participants. So please sign up and encourage all your Nordic Walking friends and colleagues to join in too.

You can follow Running Through on their social media:

facebook.com/UoNRunningThrough
twitter.com/_Runningthrough
twitter.com/instagram.com/UON_runningthrough/

What do you need to do to join this research?

You will need to:

• Register with the research project.
• Use one of the associate fitness tracker apps - Strava or Garmin - when you Nordic Walk. Alternatively you could sync your favourite app with Strava or Garmin.
• Complete a weekly questionnaire sent by email for six months.

There is no need to change any of your activities or habits - just carry on as you would normally do.

How to register with Running Through

First of all, be aware that the project has been set up for runners so the language in the project is based around running and jogging. British Nordic Walking approached the researchers to suggest also looking at Nordic Walking on hearing about the project but it is too late to make changes to the research questions to include reference to Nordic Walking. The instructions below show you how to flag up that you are a Nordic Walker in the registration process.

Step 1. Go to the Running Through website and sign up

The website is https://runningthrough.org/ - just click on Sign Up Now.

Step 2. Make sure that you read the Participant Information Sheet before you go further.

There will be a link to this document which will tell you all you need to know about your involvement in the project.

Step 3. Complete the consent form

All your personal data will be treated confidentially.

Step 4. Complete the registration form

This will include submitting details of your height, weight, etc., your activity preferences (it talks about running but read this as Nordic Walking), and about your health habits, and about various health conditions.

PLEASE NOTE

This is the section where you need to flag up that you are a Nordic Walker. Do this by:

• Going to the question, Which terrain do you most commonly run on?
• Clicking on Other.

Then, Under Please Specify, put Nordic Walking on Road or Nordic Walking on Trail. The researchers will use this to identify who is a Nordic Walker.

Continue through this questionnaire, remembering that you need to read "running" and "jogging" as "Nordic Walking".

Step 5. Connect to your fitness tracker

The partner apps for this research project are Garmin and Strava. You will need an account for one of these to connect your Running Through account.

Once the connection has been made, this will be shown on your Running Through account.

And that's it. You're good to go. All you need to do is make sure you are using you tracker app when you Nordic Walk - if you use your tracker for more than one type of exercise, you might want to name each Nordic Walking activity accordingly - and complete the weekly questionnaire.

And, of course, to spread the word - we'd like as many Nordic Walkers as possible to participate.

Hatti Bell: award-winning British Nordic Walking instructor December 19 2020

British Nordic Walking instructor, Hatti Bell, given the Joan Alexander Award by Age UK Sutton for the work she does with their Nordic Walking group. 

What is the difference between Nordic Walking and pole walking? November 19 2020

Nordic Walking is not just "walking with poles" and with good reason. Originally developed as a means of helping cross country skiers to train when there is no snow, Nordic Walking is now very much its own thing, its special technique using specially designed poles enhancing the natural movement of walking to create extra power.

This video, from Gilly Davy, an INWA Nordic Walking instructor and respected neuro physiotherapist, explains the difference between Nordic Walking and pole walking, why this difference matters, and how you can tell the difference between Nordic Walking poles and other types of walking pole.

Community Project: Nordic Walking for osteoporosis and osteoarthritis September 21 2020

Stockport-based Life Leisure came across research that suggested Nordic Walking improves bone and muscular strength in older adults and those with osteoporosis. 

From this came the idea to create a local walking group for people with osteoarthritis. 

Connecting with Community - Sue Holden builds links with GoodGym September 20 2020

‘Getting Fitter Picking Litter’ and ‘Pickers and Poles’ have been the tag lines for ourExe Nordic Walking's first two events in conjunction with the charity GoodGym. Klara from GoodGym and Sue Holden of Exe Nordic Walking met at Parkrun last year and discussed how great working together would be, one day...

Meet Yvonne Bignall, instructor, personal trainer, and women's health advocate September 19 2020

Yvonne Bignall, AKA YvonneB, is an Award Winning Women’s Health Advocate, Self-Care Coach, British Nordic Walking Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Weight Loss Practitioner who started Nordic Walking Instructing two years ago after hearing about it from a business colleague. Intrigued by this low-impact outdoor activity, she signed up for the instructors weekend programme.

Community Project: Step Forth supported by Paths for All August 24 2020

Step Forth is a led health walks scheme, run by Falkirk Community Trust. It’s aim is to get more people active within their own communities especially those who are sedentary, who live in areas of poor health or who are socially isolated. 

The project added Nordic Walking to the health walk mix because they learned about the impact that that the Finnish government's health policy had on improving its people's health - and it included Nordic Walking!orld. 

Marion's fund-raising challenge August 20 2020

Can a 76-year old meet the challenge of walking 1,200 miles in a year? It’s the equivalent of walking from Bristol to John O’Groats and back again – and Marion is determined to achieve this with some help from her Nordic Walking poles.

Meet Gareth Davies, instructor, gold medal winner, and much more August 18 2020

Gareth Davies is a British Nordic Walking instructor, Master Personal Trainer, GP Exercise Referral Instructor and Weight Management Specialist for Diabetes and Obesity. He took the gold medal at the 2019 INWA World Cup in Estonia for the 10km distance in the Masters category with a time of 01:09:44 - a time which he has since beaten in our recent Virtual Nordic Walking Challenge at 01:07:23.

Gareth has been a British Nordic Walking instructor for 10 years. Here's what he shared with us about his experience.

Nordic Walking burns 46% more calories than normal walking. Or does it? July 30 2020

We’ve probably all heard the claim – that Nordic Walking uses up to 46% more calories than normal walking. But where does this claim come from? And is it too good to be true? 

Get started with Nordic Walking for Better Health July 28 2020

If you started enjoying outdoor exercise during lockdown... If you know you need to get healthier to help protect yourself from the effects of coronavirus…  If you want to get back to exercising but are concerned about doing so indoors…

Then Nordic Walking is for you. 

Here's what you need to know to get started...

Why does it take 10 steps to teach Nordic Walking? June 14 2020

British Nordic Walking instructors use the INWA 10-Step method of teaching Nordic Walking. If you want to learn Nordic Walking why does this matter to you? Here are our three main reasons...

Nordic Walking recommended to help prevent falls May 28 2020

Nordic Walking is amongst the activities detailed in government guidance for health and care professionals as being suitable for individuals at risk of falls.

Nordic Walking exercises for people living with Parkinson's May 23 2020

As part of our project with Parkinson's UK, we have produced some videos to help people living with Parkinson's learn more about - and enjoy - Nordic Walking while coronavirus restrictions on group activity are in place.

ESCAPE Pain: helping people stay active in the time of Covid-19 April 15 2020

We have been developing a relationship with ESCAPE-pain, a great initiative that works with people who have chronic knee or hip pain - something that many Nordic Walkers are all too familiar with. Here's what they have to say about their current activities in their own words...

Nordic Walking gives faster results for losing weight than normal walking February 25 2020

Nordic Walking is a more effective exercise tool for weight loss than normal walking, research from the University of Verona shows. The results suggest that Nordic Walking gives greater and quicker benefits making it useful tool to counteract obesity and overweight state in middle-aged adults. 

Nordic Walkers love being outdoors and their wellbeing benefits February 06 2020

Spending time outdoors is known to be positively associated with higher levels of psychological wellbeing so it is no surprise that recent research by Loughborough University into the benefits of Nordic Walking found that the opportunity to be outside was ranked highest of the perceived benefits of participating in Nordic Walking.

Sue and Arthur – Nordic Walking instructors who have faced health challenges and thrived January 22 2020

Nordic Walking instructors come to the activity for all sorts of reasons; often it is significant life change that prompts that choice. Arthur Frost and Sue Turford work as instructors at the Prestatyn and Meliden “You’ll Never Walk Alone” voluntary project and know this very well.

Parkinson's UK Nordic Walking project December 11 2019

Nordic Walking and Wellness November 20 2019

Preliminary findings from research carried out during 2019 into Nordic Walking and Wellness has shown some interesting results. An impressive 88% were in good or very good health which is higher than for the general adult population at 81%.

Nordic Walking; a personal perspective from National Coach, Arlene Bowmaker October 25 2019

My name is Arlene Bowmaker and among the many ‘hats that I wear’ in my working life are Nordic Walking Instructor and National Coach for British Nordic Walking. I thought I would share my journey in the Nordic Walking world so far, from that first free taster workshop at a Pilates conference, to be being a National Trainer in Scotland.

Nordic Walking and Healthy Ageing October 23 2019

British Nordic Walking has become Signatory on the Consensus on Healthy Ageing in an initiative from Public Health England to help achieve a shared vision “for England to be the best place in the world to grow older, giving everyone the opportunities and support they need to have a healthy and good quality later life and making the best use of the strengths, skills and experience of older people.“ 

UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines recognise Nordic Walking October 03 2019

The UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines published on 7 September 2019 has recognised the benefits of Nordic Walking as a useful activity separately to those of ordinary walking.