Nordic walking: perfect for summer, unlike the name implies.

Try this: while walking at a brisk pace, intentionally swing your arms out in front of and then behind you with each stride while using an exaggerated gait. You'll notice after several minutes that your heart rate is up, and your abdomen, upper back, and shoulders are getting a workout. And though your breathing clearly indicates increased caloric expenditure, you barely perceive the extra effort you're employing to maintain this movement. These benefits are precisely the focus of an excellent and relatively new low-impact cross-training technique known as Nordic walking.

Exertionally in between running and fitness walking, the activity provides a good cardio workout for people who don't quite get the burn they need from even brisk walking, but who may not be regular runners (yet), or for runners who simply want to stay loose by working their muscles a bit on a day of rest. Developed in the 1930s by off-season cross-country skiers in Finland, Nordic walking has taken hold only recently in the U.S. The activity is becoming popular by solving a simple problem: People aren't working hard enough when they walk. The solution to this is to add poles.

Nordic walking poles have a spiked tip on the end for stabbing into soft surfaces like grass or dirt. But this all-terrain, year-round activity has a solution for asphalt and concrete as well; the poles come with rubber booties that slip onto the spikes so they can grip these harder surfaces too. Some manufacturers also make special attachments for use in the snow. Unlike traditional ski or trekking poles, Nordic walking poles have angled booties for optimal use during the specific movement of walking. They also are designed without swing weight in the tip--the tip stays behind the body and is used only for propulsion, not for pulling oneself up, as with trekking.

The International Nordic Walking Association (yes, there is one) says it takes about eight hours of practice with the poles to get the right groove going for the best Nordic walking workouts. Essentially, take long strides as you walk, keeping arms extended rather than bent at the elbow. The movement should come from the shoulders, not the elbows. Keeping your chin and shoulders level to the ground rather than listing as you walk, with each stride allow the long arm to pull your torso into a slight, controlled rotation. This assures back health as you step with your heels and roll through the toes to maximize stride length.

If executed correctly, the activity produces results. The Cooper Institute conducted one study that found pole walkers boosted calorie burn by 20 to 46 percent over regular walking. According to the INWA, the sport can boost heart rate by five to 17 beats per minute. There are a host of reasons why Nordic walking doesn't seem like the workout it actually is. Most obviously, it creates far less impact with the ground than running. Second, it distributes the work throughout the entire body, not just mainly in the legs, as with running. As you push down gently on the poles, you create even more resistance as you walk, and build upper body and core strength as well. Yet the poles themselves also take weight off your joints, making it ideal for overweight people with joint problems beginning a walking regimen. Add up-and downhill grades to the course, and you've got yourself a pretty good workout.

It's also possible to use the poles for support when performing stretching and strengthening exercises like lunges or squats. Try a 15-minute warm-up walk, then pick up the pace for 35, followed by a 10-minute cool down. That's an hour-long, highly enjoyable yet low-stress workout, after which you may even add lunges to top it off. As your arm swings from your shoulder, the rubber tip moves ahead of you and bites into the earth level with the middle of your opposite foot. When you feel it meet the ground, press gently.

Note that some Nordic walking poles are height adjustable. For information on various makes and models, as well as more on Nordic walking in general, you can go to www.inwa.nordicwalking.com, www.exerstrider.com, www.swixsport.com, www.nordicwalker.com, www.fittrek.com, www.leki.com, or www.nordicwalknow.com.

ACE Cert. News, 2007, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 4-6