NORDIC WALKING
Planificación y nutrición saludables en los deportes de Bajo Impacto para prevenir lesiones y conseguir todos los beneficios físicos y emocionales de la práctica deportiva . . .
Nordic Walking: Low Impact Healthy Training:
Nordic Walking is defined as the incorporation of specially designed poles into normal walking. The earliest origins of this sport hark back to the 1930s in Finland, when it was developed as a method of off-season training for cross-country skiers. More recently, in the 1960s, it was introduced in Finnish schools and then went on to be perfected and offered to the general public in the 1990s thanks to its health benefits
The health benefits of this discipline as compared to jogging or running, come from the incorporation of the upper body to the exercise, meaning that you work as many muscle groups as possible. Correctly establishing a technique and planning training provide the additional benefits of:
- Reducing the impact on joints (Schwameder 2009).
- Reducing fatigue of the lower limbs (legs) on long journeys.
- Improving posture, reducing backache, and neck and shoulder pain (Antilla et al. 1999, Karvonen et al. 2000),
- Increasing metabolic rate, calorie burning and heart rate (Morse et al. 2001, Church et al. 2002), compared with a brisk walk.
- Increasing consistency of exercise thanks to a lower rate of perceived exertion (Borg Scale).
Characteristics of Nordic Walking as healthy training:
Nordic Walking is a strength and endurance exercise with a duration both in training sessions and in competition trials that generally varies between 60 and 180 minutes.
As a result, it is an exercise that mainly contracts slow-twitch muscle fibres typical of prolonged aerobic exercise, which is characterised at a metabolic level by using mainly fatty acids and lipids as fuel.
The intensity of this type of exercise is variable and generally falls within the aerobic thresholds to maintain a healthy body and mind.
The type of training involved is usually Continuous Uniform Training, because circuits are usually long distance with no changes in rhythm or slope to maintain a healthy level of fitness.
Competition Nordic Walking:
If you are of a competitive nature, the FEDME (Spanish Federation of Mountain and Climbing Sports), organises an annual calendar of trials in different areas of Spain, Spanish Cups both on an individual and club level, as well as a national ranking.
If you are interested in these activities, you should be aware that in competition trials it is customary to complete long periods within anaerobic thresholds close to the maximal oxygen consumption rate (VO2max), for which you need to develop a tolerance to high concentrations of lactic acid.
For this, Continuous Variable Training is recommended, which combines high-intensity interval training and series of strength-endurance aerobic-anaerobic exercises, which corresponds much better to the type of circuits and intensity to be found in official competition trials.
