...is walking with two specially designed poles (for Nordic Walking!)
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"... Hey, where are your skis?"
"... Are you training for cross-country skiing season?"
"... Have you seen snow somewhere here?" |
These are some of the funniest comments Tuula has heard when people have seen her walking with poles. But she doesn’t need skis or snow, and she doesn’t train for cross-country skiing, because this is a new exercise called NORDIC WALKING or POLE WALKING or FITNESS WALKING, or even SKI WALKING.
Nordic Walking (or pole walking, fitness walking) was originally developed as a summer training method for Finnish cross-country skiers and it was launched in 1997 in Finland 
Today there are more than 500,000 walking pole users in Finland (with population of only 5 million) and it has spread throughout Scandinavia and Europe, where it is estimated that about 3,5 million people do Nordic Walking / pole walking regularly. And it is also growing rapidly in many other countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, Canada and US.
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Here is the latest article about Nordic Walking in The North County Times:
Nordic Walking: What is it?
By: Michelle Rotell
Tuula Niskanen of San Diego, born and raised in Finland, took me and my friend Liz for a walk at the Rancho California Ronald Reagan Sports Park. At first, it felt strange to be holding poles while I was walking and I wanted to dig them into the ground and lean forward like I was snowshoeing or skiing. Tuula quickly corrected me. You drag them behind you and push off to gain more force. Liz and I were cracking up because we could not get the rhythm. After a few minutes, I got the hang of it...
See more articles here
Selecting The Right Walking Shoes
By: The Walking Site
People are always asking for shoe recommendations. I don't like to make specific shoe recommendations because everyone's foot is different and people have different walking styles. But there are a few basics for selecting walking shoes...
See more articles here
