If you've ever chanced upon a group of people walking round Broomfield Park using long poles and wondered what they were up to, the answer is Nordic Walking.
So what's the idea? Are the benefits that Nordic walking practitioners talk about genuine or is it just another fad?
A recent article on the Conversation website - Seven reasons Nordic walking is better for you than the normal kind by Lindsay Bottoms, Reader in Exercise and Health Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire - confirms that the benefits compared with normal ways of walking are real:
- You burn more calories
- It may reduce limb pain
- It improves upper body strength
- It increases core strength
- It reduce the risk of falling
- It boosts cardiovascular health
- You can walk faster.
There are Nordic walking sessions in the park on Saturday mornings and Monday afternoons, and currently there's room for new people at both sessions. For more information, see the adverts in the events section of this website and in the weekly newsletter.