Nordic Walking 101: Essential Tips for Beginners to Get Started and Excel

2023-08-21 19:29:55

Nordic walking: 5 tips for beginners

The joint-gentle training is therefore the perfect sport if you want to lose weight in the long term. Nordic walking is an easy sport to learn, but there are a few things that beginners need to know when starting out. Which is this? We will tell you below!

1. It depends on the right technique

Grab sticks and start running? Not like that! In order to practice Nordic Walking effectively and pain-free, you should master the right technique. We will explain this to you step by step and start with the posture:

As you walk, your upper body remains straight with only a slight bend forward at the hips. Lift your chest up, your shoulders pulled back slightly. As you walk, your head remains straight and your gaze is forward.

This is how the Nordic Walking technique works:

You move in a cross-coordinated gait the entire time, so your arms and legs move in opposite directions.

Feet are placed flat with the heels and unrolled correctly. The front knee must never be fully extended when touching down. The back knee, on the other hand, can be stretched during dynamic push-offs. The active arm swing is characteristic of walking – but how do you do it correctly? The movement of the arms comes from the shoulders. You don’t need to raise your arms extra. When putting on the walking sticks, bring your arms forward far enough. When swinging forward, never fully straighten your elbow, but keep it slightly bent. When swinging backwards, you should make your arms as long as possible, but also not stretch them out completely.

Using the sticks:

In the beginning, you should adjust the length of the sticks so that your hands are at belly button height. The sticks are held close to the body. The right stick is always in contact with the ground when the left heel touches down – and vice versa. Important: The stick insertion should never be in front of the toes of the front foot, but always behind them.

2. Start small

To get used to the new sport, regarding 10 minutes is enough at the beginning. Gradually you can increase the duration. Two to three training sessions a week are also sufficient for the beginning. Give your body enough time to regenerate.

3. Choose the right pace

In order to keep the risk of injury as low as possible and to use the newly learned technique in the best possible way, you should walk more slowly at first. In addition, going too fast is not very beneficial, otherwise you will quickly get out of breath. At the beginning regarding 5 km/h is ideal. With regular training you will automatically become faster.

4. Choose the right stick

Stick is stick? Unfortunately not! This is the most important component of Nordic Walking, so you should choose it wisely. The right length is crucial – when choosing walking poles, the rule of thumb is: height x 0.66. It is best to seek advice from a specialist shop.

5. Don’t pay attention to others

If you walk around with walking sticks, you have to reckon with the looks of others. And friends or acquaintances might also come up with one or the other stupid saying from the environment. However, you should stand above it and realize why you are starting with Nordic Walking – because the sport is fun and promotes your health.

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