Whittle Your Waistline the Nordic Way
Dodging round, rubber projectiles fired at you... getting rope burns all along your legs and palms...
You might recall activities like dodgeball and rope climbing as typical gym-class staples.
But if you were in Leena Jaaskelainen's gym class back in 1966, you got to walk around with poles...
Jääskeläinen, an avid skier, noticed how adding ski poles upped the intensity of her uphill walks during off-season training.
So she decided to have her class of female students do the same, by having them walk with poles.
Fast-forward to today, and what began as a popular training method for Finnish skiers (and high-school students) has now at least 8 million regular practitioners worldwide...
That's Nordic walking.
With this low-impact, whole-body exercise, you mimic the movements of cross-country skiers while carrying walking poles. There's zero snow required – you can walk on regular streets and sidewalks.
And as it turns out, Nordic walking is great for your health. We have hundreds of scientific studies over the past 20 years to attest to that...
For instance, published in a June 2022 issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, a randomized clinical-trial study compared the physical and mental-health benefits of different forms of exercise for folks with a common form of heart disease called coronary artery disease.
Researchers put 86 participants, aged 40 to 74, into one of three exercise groups: high-intensity interval training ("HIIT"), moderate-intensity continuous training ("MICT"), and Nordic walking.
Over the next 12 weeks, the HIIT group performed regular workouts that involved a series of short, intense bursts of exercise. The MICT group performed continuous aerobic exercise for 60 minutes twice a week. And the Nordic walkers... well... Nordic walked.
After 26 weeks, all three groups could walk much farther in six minutes than they could at the start of the study. But the Nordic-walking group could travel 94.2 meters, while neither of the other groups topped 60 meters.
Further benefits to Nordic walking include lowering your cholesterol, alleviating depression and anxiety, losing weight, improving flexibility, and building both endurance and muscle strength.
And if you're looking to trim down your waistline, a small study published in 2019 found that Nordic walking can do just that. Thirty-eight overweight and obese participants aged between 50 and 80 were split up into two groups where, for six months, one group did Nordic walking and the other group took regular old strolls. Researchers found that the reduction in waist circumference among the Nordic-walking group was double that of the regular-walking group.
Spicing up your regular walks with a set of poles works out multiple muscles – like those in your shoulders, arms, core, and legs – all at once. So as you can imagine, it's great for your health.
A 2023 review of the bodily effects of using poles in sports like cross-country skiing and Nordic walking found that you end up improving your aerobic fitness (in terms of oxygen intake) and raised your heart rate – all without increasing the level of perceived exertion.
For older adults worried about falling, adding a pair of poles gives you more stability on your walks. Leaning into the poles a bit takes some of the weight off of your lower body, too, making Nordic walking a low-impact exercise.
Another reason to walk like the Finnish is that it gets you outside...
A 2020 paper in Frontiers in Psychology looked at the effects of nature on our mental and physical states. The researchers analyzed 14 studies and found that 10 to 30 minutes of sitting outside or walking outside led to:
- Lowered heart rate
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol
- Positive scores on mood diagnostics
- More feelings of calmness and restoration
And just like Jääskeläinen, don't shelve your walking poles once the seasons change. As the weather warms up and plants begin to grow again, make Mother Nature your walking buddy...
Take your poles to green spaces like trails or public parks in the city for an instant mood boost. One study out of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health found an inverse relationship between being in "green space" areas and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. In other words, people who spent more time in gardens or parks reported fewer negative mental-health symptoms.
It's one of the reasons I spend time walking outdoors every day. It's a great combination of benefits: I get to move more, get vitamin D from the sun, and soak up the calming effects of nature. Also, I aim to walk for at least 20 minutes every day.
So if you ever thought folks walking around with ski poles on warm, sunny days were just plain nuts, it turns out they're onto something. And you'd be crazy not to join them... Go ahead and give Nordic walking a try.
P.S. If you think being less physically active is a natural part of getting older and that there's no point in starting to regularly exercise late in life, you're dead wrong. This line of thinking is a surefire way to drive you to an early grave.
Even if you didn't get a head start in your earlier decades, starting late in life will still reward you with a bounty of health benefits. Check out my Retirement Millionaire issue on why movement is crucial to both your lifespan and your healthspan and for my No. 1 strength exercise. Click here for a discounted trial subscription if you're not a subscriber.
What We're Reading (and Watching)...
- Something different: This 1960s high-school gym class would ruin you.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
February 25, 2025