Pole Walking
Improve your
Walking Workout
Decrease the Joint Pain
Introduction
Nearly three years ago, Anne-Marie
Westenberg's doctor told her she should start walking for her health.
But at five feet, six inches tall and weighing nearly 400 pounds, the
42-year-old woman found walking to be a tall order.
Then she discovered what she calls "the
sticks"--actually cross-country ski poles converted for fitness walking.
The sticks eased the stress on her overburdened legs and gave her a
sense of confidence when maneuvering. After a few months using the
sticks, she worked up to walking two miles a day and even farther on
weekends. Today, Anne-Marie weighs under 200 pounds. She attributes her
successful turnaround to "those sticks."
What helped Anne-Marie lose weight was
the relatively new conditioning activity known as fitness pole walking,
also called Nordic walking, pole striding, or pole walking. Nordic
walking has soared in popularity in Europe in recent years, especially
in Finland. According to a poll there last year, some 18 percent of the
fitness-loving Finnish population use walking poles to keep in shape. In
the U.S., fitness pole walking has gained a toehold mainly among avid
outdoor walkers and hikers, but because the poles shift weight away from
the lower limbs and make walking safer, fitness poles also are showing
up in cardiac and orthopedic rehabilitation units of hospitals and
clinics.
What is Pole Walking?
To those unfamiliar with pole walking, the
activity may look a little silly--like cross-country skiing without the
skis--but those who have tried it know that pole walking beats regular
walking by a mile. Pole walking pioneer Tom Rutlin of Madison,
Wisconsin, made that discovery 17 years ago after developing a bone spur
on his heel.
"I tried to run
through the pain of it," the former cross-country ski instructor and
inveterate jogger says. "Then one day my good sense kicked in. I went
home and got my ski poles."
With the support of the poles, Rutlin was
able to run again, but instead of his usual 70-minute workout, he had to
stop after 45 minutes.
"I was completely spent," he says. In
trying to figure out why, he realized that with poles, "you're using so
much more muscle mass that your metabolic rate is quite a bit higher, so
you get a shorter workout and a lot more intensive one." Instead of
working just your leg muscles, pole walking exercises all the main
muscles in the upper body, including abdominals, biceps, forearm,
pectorals, and spinal rectors.
Rutlin realized right away that he was
onto something significant and tried to spread the world. He first used
the poles to train the University of Wisconsin rowing crew. The coach
told him when he started that he thought there wasn't much talent on the
team that year, Rutlin says. But the team surprisingly went on to
capture two national rowing championships, thanks in part, Rutlin
believes, to increased fitness from their pole running workouts. But the
poles failed to catch on with the larger rowing community, and Rutlin's
attempt to interest National Football League trainers in the poles met
with similar indifference.
So Rutlin switched from running with the
poles to walking and began manufacturing and selling them to the
power-walking and jogging public. In the late 1990s, European makers of
ski and exercise equipment also took up the ideal and began selling
walking poles in Europe as well as the U.S., where they have been slower
catching on.
What are the Benefits
of Pole Walking?
Recent scientific studies bear out the
claims about pole walking's beneficial effects. Women using walking
poles for 12 weeks in a University of Wisconsin study increased their
upper-body muscle endurance by 37 percent, compared with a 13 percent
gain for women who did regular walking.
The Cooper Clinic reported an average 20
percent increase in calorie consumption using walking poles. However,
Rutlin believes most walking-pole users can do better than that by using
the right technique, which is to keep the arms out straight, as in
cross-country skiing. "We find that most people can get a 30 to 40
percent increase in calorie consumption using our techniques," he says.
Another plus of pole walking is that
while it improves upper-body fitness, it also takes a load off the knees
and legs. Dr. J. Richard Steadman, an orthopedic surgeon who works with
elite athletes at Vail, Colorado, has calculated that a five-foot,
six-inch person weighing 155-165 pounds walking with poles would reduce
the accumulated force on his lower extremities by some six tons when
walking a mile. For runners, the accumulated force would be even
greater--the reason, Rutlin says, why some avid joggers have been
switching to pole walking to save the cartilage in their knees.
"What most walkers are out there for is
to improve their cardiovascular fitness and to keep their weight under
control," Rutlin says. "But there is also another issue. Because you are
actually bearing some of your weight with your upper body using walking
poles, the skeletal system in your body is positively affected. I've had
people who were diagnosed with osteoporosis and used the poles for a
number of years who either maintain their bone density or, in a couple
of cases, actually have reversed the diagnosis and gone to what is
usually called osteopenia, which is a precursor of osteoporosis." Rutlin
points to his mother, who is 78 and has been pole striding for 12 years.
"She has gained seven percent bone density from the age of 70 to age
78," he says.
The University of Wisconsin Hospitals
have offered fitness pole walking in cardiac and other rehabilitation
programs for the past seven years.
"The main advantage of fitness pole
walking is that it offers less perceived exertion," says Jude Sullivan,
a U of W clinical exercise physiologist. "In other words, patients who
may be fearful of overexertion, who would normally walk at 3.0 mph, can
walk at, say, 3.4 mph with walking poles without feeling any difference
in their exertion level."
Researchers at the Edward Hines, Jr., VA
Hospital near Chicago found that patients with peripheral vasculitis and
intermittent claudication could walk longer with less discomfort using
the poles. A study showed similar results for Parkinson's disease
patients, and the hospital now is studying poles for patients with
diabetic neuropathy, a loss of nerve function in the feet and legs.
Rutlin often hears from fitness pole
users who have severe walking disabilities. "I've had letters and calls
from people with MS, arthritis, diabetes, balance problems, even partial
foot amputation," he says. "One multiple sclerosis patient wrote,
saying, `I have not been able to walk this well for ... well, I can't
even remember when I could walk this well.'"
One other benefit pole walkers get from
the activity has nothing to do with walking or exercise; it's the
curious attention that pole walking usually attracts. "Martha Anderson,
a woman from Oak Park, Illinois, just wanted to lose some weight,"
Rutlin says. "She lost 32 pounds, and she says the second best thing
about the poles was all the men she meets when she uses them. She's slim
and trim now, and the poles give men a reason to stop and ask her about
them."
This exercise will allow you to work
smarter not harder and build more fitness in less time! With this
simple total body exercise you can simultaneously...
1. Strengthen
abdominal, back, arm, shoulder, chest & leg muscles
2. Burn up to 70% more calories
3. Increase cardiovascular fitness
4. Improve overall stamina and muscle endurance
5. Improve lymph system function
6. Reduce injury causing stress on hips, knees and feet
7. Help maintain overall bone density
8. Maintain joint health and range of motion
9. Improve posture and balance
10. Enhance energy and mood
11. Enjoy fun, convenient fresh-air total body exercise
...every time you walk! You'll love
the added results you'll get when you turn walking into a total body
exercise that gently puts every major muscle in your body to use with
every stride!
Learning How to Pole
Walk
As for learning how to actually maneuver
with fitness poles, it may take a little practice, especially for those
who never have skiied cross-country. Rutlin recommends watching the
video that comes with the poles rather than just reading the instruction
booklet.
"Before people start using
the poles, I have them walk first and move their left arm with their
right leg and so on to get the idea," he says. "You can do some pretty
strange things if you think about it too much," he adds. "On the other
hand, if you just do it, it's pretty natural."
In just a few seconds you can begin to feel
for yourself just how Pole Walking works! Just take your hands off of
your keyboard and mouse and extend them out over the surface of your
desk as if offering them both for a friendly handshake. Now make two
fists and place them on the surface of your desk with your thumbs up.
Finally, sit upright and alternately press one fist then the other into
the desk repeatedly. Feel how your abdominal muscles as well as large
back, arm, shoulder, chest and important core strength muscles contract
each time you push! You'll do 1,800 - 2,000 similar muscle contractions
per mile as you apply force to the poles with each stride! Because the
work is shared by so many major muscles, you'll actually feel like
you're working less while accomplishing much more...with even less risk
of injury. Let me show you how to work smarter, not harder, have more
fun, and condition every major muscle as you walk!
Pole Walking works all major muscles.
Ordinary walking works only the muscles in blue
letters.
More than 50%
of the body's total muscle mass is in the upper body, and with
easy-to-learn techniques you'll put all these muscles to good use with
every step you take. Imagine how much more fitness you can build by
simultaneously exercising all the body's major muscles! Fitness
experts now stress the importance of upper body muscle conditioning in
addition to aerobic fitness. You won't have to find time to do separate
weight training workouts. Now there is a simple and effective way to
enhance the aerobic effects of walking and build upper body muscle
strength and endurance at the same time. Transform ordinary walking into
total body Pole Walking!
As people age, certain
physical changes generally occur, including weight gain, loss of muscle
mass, loss of muscle strength and endurance, loss of bone density,
decreasing cardiovascular capacity, and eventually loss of balance,
confidence and the ability to remain physically independent. These
changes are by no means inevitable if we exercise regularly. But now
experts now tell us that we should do both aerobic and muscle
strengthening exercise. Despite the experts' advice, fewer than one in
four people participate in any type of regular program of exercise. If
you already walk, you're in the top 25% of the population in terms of
fitness, but walking does little to maintain upper body muscle strength.
pole walking simultaneously works all the body's major muscles and in
addition it more effectively prevents weight gain, helps maintain
overall bone density, increases cardiovascular capacity and increases
confidence by improving balance and posture. If you're going to invest
in exercise by walking, pole walking is like putting your investment in
a "bank" with a significantly higher interest rate. Without feeling like
you're investing more energy and with no additional investment in time
you'll reap much greater fitness returns!
Many walking gurus suggest
that the best (and some will say only) means to increase the fitness
benefits of walking is simply to walk faster! Well, the truth is that
there are physiological and motivational limits to how much walkers can
increase their speed. Walking ever faster also increases significantly
the stress that walking puts on the body. Most people take up fitness
walking because it is safe and enjoyable. For many, walking faster makes
it less enjoyable, and the faster one walks the greater the likelihood
of injury. No matter what speed you like to walk, pole walking will
increase the benefits significantly without any significant increase in
the perceived exertion and without going faster.
Although wrist weights or
hand held weights are the most widely used tools used by walkers
attempting to "pump up" their walking workouts, the benefits of their
use are minimal and the risks associated with their use are significant.
While you can increase the energy cost of walking by 5-15% with weights,
swinging these weights back and forth puts significant stress on the
tendons and ligaments of the shoulder. Most experts agree that the risks
far outweigh the benefits. (A note on ankle weights -- they can also
increase energy cost by 5-10%, but can alter gait mechanics and put
dangerous stress on the ligaments of the knee.)
The use of weighted vests or
backpacks to enhance the benefits of walking are also a poor choice.
Studies have shown that in order to significantly increase the energy
cost of walking, more than 40% of a person's body weight must be carried
(60 lbs. for a person weighing 150 lbs.!). In addition to adding stress
to the neck and shoulders, the feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine react
as though you had suddenly gained 60 lbs. of excess body weight.
Recently waist belts with
attached resistance cords have gained popularity for enhancing the
benefits of walking. While the energy cost data on these devices is
impressive (40% to 60% increases), it should be noted that because these
devices activate relatively small muscles in the shoulder and chest to
lift the arm and stretch the attached resistance cords, these energy
increases can be sustained for only very short periods of time (3-5
minutes for most people) before these muscles are worked to exhaustion.
During this brief period of exercise these devices do little to
strengthen important trunk muscles or contribute to aerobic fitness.
In contrast to these means
of pumping up your walk, pole walking is much safer and more effective.
You'll easily increase the energy cost of walking by nearly 25% without
feeling like you're working any harder and by up to 70% with a serious
effort. (And these increases can be sustained for 30-60+ minute exercise
sessions.) Instead of placing even more stress on lower limbs, pole
walking actually decreases pain and injury-causing stresses to the hips,
knees, ankles and feet by 20%-30%! The repetitive contractions of all
the body's major muscles result in significant increases in strength and
endurance. Your balance, posture and cardiovascular health will also
benefit significantly from pole walking.
The commonly accepted belief
is that you need to "overload" muscles in order to build strength. This
involves lifting heavy weights or working against levels of resistance
that actually break down the muscles and result in the body rebuilding
and increasing muscle mass in order to do the increasing work that is
being required of the muscle. These muscle "overload" workouts use heavy
weights or high levels of resistance and usually involve 10 to 25
repetitions. And they do build strength.
Pole walking does not
"overload " the muscles. Instead it simply puts every major muscle to
work against relatively low levels of resistance for literally thousands
of repetitions. There is no argument among experts that pole walking can
build muscle endurance. What the experts will eventually discover is
that muscles that work against light resistance for thousands of
repetitions will also increase in strength although they will not
significantly increase in mass. Unless you are an athlete whose
activities require exceptional levels of strength, the type of
"functional strength" and muscle endurance that pole walking builds are
actually preferable.
While maintaining a desired
body weight is a a positive step toward maintaining good health, there
is much more to good health than that. While walking can help you
maintain a desire body weight and contribute to good cardiovascular
health, it does little to maintain the strength and endurance of
important muscles in the trunk and arms. The American College of Sports
Medicine and other experts now recommend that people do weight training
or resistance exercise several times per week to maintain their upper
body strength and muscle tone. pole walking is an effective way to work
the large muscles of the upper body against resistance as you walk. You
won't have to join a gym or health club or buy expensive weight training
equipment and you can accomplish both aerobic fitness and muscle
conditioning goals at the same time.
In addition, few people
realize that it is possible to maintain exactly the same body weight as
inactivity or age brings about a gradual loss of muscle mass and a
corresponding increase in body fat. You don't have to "pump iron" to
maintain healthy muscle mass, you just need to put all your major
muscles to use regularly. That's really what pole walking is all about.
Yes! I too am a former
runner, and I've been pole walking for nearly fifteen years now. I quit
running when I realized that by simultaneously working all of the body's
major muscles, I could actually accomplish more fitness goals in less
time. Webster's dictionary defines exercise as "the act of putting to
use." Running and much of what is prescribed by the "experts" and the
media as "exercise" involves putting the body to "abuse", rather than to
"use." Those that survive these various forms of abuse do get fit, but
for every runner who survives years of pavement-pounding forces to get
fit, there are ten who will become "former runners with bad knees."
Pole walking is a true total
body exercise. Unlike many expensive machines and exercise gimmicks on
the market that claim to be total body exercise, pole walking actually
"puts to use" all of the body's major muscles in a sustained aerobic
exercise. Unlike running and other "half body exercises", your heart
will work to pump blood to every major muscle in your body,
simultaneously improving overall vascular fitness and gradually
increasing muscle strength and endurance. While some experts will claim
that it is not possible to build strength without "overloading" the
muscle, you'll see for yourself the strength-building results of doing
thousands of repetitions against relatively light resistance during
regular total body aerobic exercise.
Just one of the great things
about pole walking is that unlike cross-country skiing and those Nordic
ski machines it does not require a high level of balance, coordination
or skill. If you can walk, you can learn to pole walking in no time at
all. It can take years to master the techniques of riding a gliding ski
across the snow or balancing on oak boards that threaten to slide off
the back of one of those ski machines, but walking with poles requires
no more coordination than just walking and swinging your arms.
Rubber tips allows you to
pole walking anywhere you would otherwise walk. The tips are tough,
non-marking and provide excellent grip on any stable walking surface.
They work equally well for mall walking and hiking on nature trails.
They are even used in school physical education classes on wood gym
floors (and you know how custodians are about their gym floors). They
work great on composition tracks like those used in health clubs. 90% of
the miles logged while pole walking are logged on concrete and asphalt
surfaces. The tips are tough enough to hold up to paved surfaces and yet
safe to use on even the most delicate floor surfaces. I do nearly all my
pole walking on paved surfaces, but my all-time favorite surface is on
the wet sand that is left as waves lap up on lake or ocean shores.
Many people ask if you can
pole walking on a treadmill. The answer depends on what the width of the
treadmill belt is. Most home treadmills have belts that are just 14" to
18" wide. Since the poles travel alongside the body, it is not possible
to pole walking safely on these treadmills. On institutional treadmills
with belts 20" or wider, it is quite possible to pole walking with some
practice.)
First of all, they are similar in that
they all involve walking with poles. Since the International Nordic
Walking Association itself defined Nordic walking as "fitness walking
with specifically designed poles," pole walking is just the original and
a particularly effective form of Nordic walking. To most people they
probably all look the same, but there are significant differences. Let's
begin with an historical perspective. Rutlin coined the term "pole
walking" around 1985. That was when he first discovered how one could
use poles and simple techniques to simultaneously exercise every major
muscle in my body while striding. Pole walking is a generic term that
has been used (mostly by those who do not yet understand the differences
between the various activities that combine walking and poles) to
describe any form of walking with poles. Trekking and trekking poles
have been around for many years. While trekking actually means "making a
long arduous journey", it has come to be just another term for hiking.
And trekking poles have been used by "hikers and trekkers" in their
outdoor pursuits for many years to make long hikes less arduous, provide
stability and alleviate pressure on the knees and other joints. What
people refer to as trekking poles can range from a stick or branch you
find in the woods to pairs of lightweight telescoping poles with ski
pole-like grips, snow baskets and metal tips. Finally, Nordic walking is
a term coined by Exel, a Finnish ski pole manufacturer, in 1997 for
their version of fitness walking with poles. Nordic walking has become
the most commonly used term for fitness walking with poles throughout
Europe as a result of Exel's formation of "The International Nordic
Walking Association" in 2000, and a growing network of their certified
Nordic walking instructors.
In 1988 Rutlin began to promote pole
walking, the original version of walking with poles for the purpose of
building total body fitness. By the early 90's, his new total body
exercise form and had been written up in magazines in both the U.S. and
Europe, and someone from Exel contacted him to ask how his efforts were
going in promoting the use of poles by walkers as a year-round exercise
form. They were of course very interested in the prospect of expanding
their seasonal ski pole business, and in the prospect of year-round
sales of slightly modified ski poles. Rutlin wasn't able to paint a very
rosy picture of his one man pole walking crusade at the time, so
apparently they simply chose to wait and see how my efforts went before
making a plunge into the market. Finally, in 1997 they made their entry
into the fitness walking pole marketplace with the introduction of the
Nordic Walker™ brand. In 2000, Exel won the top prize in a Finnish "new"
product competition for "their" walking poles and an activity Rutlin had
already been promoting in the U.S. for a dozen years!
In the nearly fifteen years Rutlin has
been promoting pole walking as a total body exercise form, lots of other
former ski pole and trekking pole manufacturers have come to recognize a
good idea and have entered the fitness walking pole market. Rutlin is
proud to say that his once-lonely crusade to get walkers to begin to use
poles to turn their favorite activity into a total body exercise has
resulted in the worldwide growth of this entirely new total body
exercise form. In addition to the introduction of Exel's Nordic Walker™
brand, German trekking pole manufacturer Leki has introduced a Fittrek™
line of fitness walking poles, and several other European and Far
Eastern pole manufacturers have now offered up their own models of
fitness walking poles. While the popularity of pole walking has grown
very rapidly in this country in the last few years, the growth of
fitness walking with poles has experienced positively explosive growth
in Europe (especially in those cross-country ski loving Scandinavian
countries)! Rutlin's continued commitment to offering innovative and
functional equipment which meets the most rigorous performance standards
and provides customers with unmatched value is only part of what has
kept pole walking poles the world's #1 fitness walking poles. Nearly
fifteen years after he began promoting pole walking as an effective way
to promote total body fitness, it is both still both his techniques and
equipment that set the standard in the rapidly expanding world of
fitness walking poles and provide leadership for the entire walking pole
movement. No matter how one uses walking poles, they will somewhat
enhance the fitness benefits of striding. But Rutlin's easy-to-learn
"pole walking" techniques have proven that they maximize both the safety
and fitness benefits of using walking poles. "pole walking" techniques
result in a maximum amount of muscle mass being put to "good use"
(rather than abuse) and feature biomechanics designed to promote maximum
improvement in overall physical function. While some may insist that the
differences between pole walking, Nordic walking and trekking are
insignificant, any serious athlete knows that even subtle changes in
body mechanics can significantly affect the results of any physical
activity. Thousands have already experienced that there really are
significant, results-enhancing differences between pole walking and
other ways of walking with poles.
Pole walking has been around since 1988.
Although it's been written about in over three dozen national magazines,
been the subject of more than 100 newspaper articles (in both large and
small markets), been featured on several nationally televised shows,
pole walking has stayed completely off the radar screen of even most
fitness walkers. In a day and age where products of all kinds "must"
build strong brand recognition and generate huge profits with the aid of
millions of dollars in marketing, pole walking has done very, very
little advertising. Over the last 15 years, dozens of fitness equipment
gimmicks have been powerfully marketed to hopeful masses, failed to
deliver on their promises and ended up in landfills -- while pole
walking fitness walking poles have been delivering real quality and
results to customers and the business has grown mostly by word-of-mouth.
Rutland didn't start this business to make a killing. He started it to
make a living, and to make a difference in many people's lives.
The ages of people who are
enjoying the benefits of pole walking range from 9 to 90. My mom is also
in her seventies and she has been pole walking for years. If you've got
painful joints, pole walking will take some weight off of those joints.
If you have lost confidence and balance, pole walking works even better
than canes or walkers. Much recent research has proven that even people
in their nineties can significantly increase their strength by doing
regular resistance or weight training. pole walking is a safe and
effective means of resistance training.
Because you bear part of
your weight with the strength of upper body muscles, you can also help
maintain the bone density of the spine and bones in the arm. People of
all ages discover that pole walking improves their posture too. Many
people are finding that pole walking poles work much better than canes
or walkers in compensating for balance problems or painful joints.
Doctors and physical therapists are recommending their use for people
with all sorts of orthopedic conditions and those recovering from joint
replacement surgeries.
