Nordic Walking News

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Hillcrest is a continuing care retirement community in La Verne, California. The sign in the attached picture points to the new Aquatic & Fitness Center which is being enjoyed by many of the residents.

About forty people in the community have walking poles of various types and a recent presentation on the importance of exercise and walking for seniors also introduced Nordic Walking as an activity. Small groups are now practicing Nordic Walking on the numerous walking paths and streets in the Hillcrest community, which has nearly 400 residents.

The nordic walkers include all ages from the late sixties to one resident who is 93 years old. Each person is able to do Nordic Walking at his or her own pace. Some people are walking more comfortably for the first time in many months following hip or knee surgery.

Hillcrest resident, Marlin Heckman, is a member of ANWA (the American Nordic Walking Association) and is a certified Nordic Walking instructor. He has personally walked 1,000 miles since the end of August. He is encouraging people to put on their pedometers, pick up their Nordic Walking poles and get out of doors to walk. A number of people had poles in the closet as gifts from children or grandchildren and those gifts are now being used.

Marlin L. Heckman
La Verne, California, USA


DO YOU HAVE A NORDIC WALKING RELATED STORY / ARTICLE WITH OR WITHOUT PHOTO? THEN WHY NOT SEND IT TO NORDIC WALKING NEWS AND WE WILL CONSIDER IT FOR PUBLICATION. SEND TO - The Editor: david.bh13@virgin.net

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Some years ago I ran a Seniors exercise and activity morning. I used to end the morning with a 30 minute stretch and relax class. One morning I decided 'off the top of my head' to spend the whole 30 minutes doing exercises for feet - Basically, simple mobility and stretching exercises...

I was amazed by the positive feedback I received after this class. This was the first time in their life that anyone in the class had dedicated a whole 30 minutes to 'exercising' their feet in a 'caring way'.

Note: Most of the participants were ladies in their 60's & 70's.

Here are 6 simple ways that you can give a little bit of TLC (tender loving care) to your feet:

Check out the article at http://walking.about.com/od/medfoot/tp/footcaretips.htm

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Nordic Walking News subscribers Peter & Steffi Mueller, Wendy Bowling and Colin Merrick from Tauranga, New Zealand are training hard for the inaugral Oxfam Trailwalker New Zealand Event, which takes place north of Lake Taupo on April 8th-9th.

This is the first time that the event has been held in New Zealand. The team are planning to walk 100kms in 20 hours to raise funds to overcome poverty and injustice around the world. Their target is to raise a minimum of $2,000.

Steffi, who is a certified Nordic Walking instructor says... "We started Nordic Walking after visiting Germany last year where we saw so many people with Nordic Walking poles".

Leki have sponsored the team by providing four sets of their 'Instructor' poles.

Good luck guys... Let us know how you get on!

To learn more about this event visit: http://www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz/

If you are interested in taking up Nordic Walking and you live within the Tauranga area of New Zealand why not check out Steffi's website: http://www.sys4u.co.nz

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In a study by Baatile et al. (2000), sixteen male Parkinsons Disease suffers all aged 72 years took part in an 8 week Nordic Walking training program They attended three times a week for one hour per session. It was concluded that regular Nordic Walking increased the perceived functional independence and quality of life of these Parkinson's Disease sufferers

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14 men all aged 61 years took part in a research study carried out by Walter et al. (1996). All participants had either undergone heart bypass or angioplasty operations or had suffered cardiac infarctions. The study concluded that walking with poles is a safe form of rehabilitation for heart patients.

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Most people will relate to this question... This is a great question.

When I first started Nordic Walking I found my right arm more dominant in the pushing phase than my left (I am right handed). Most people are dominant in the arm of the hand they use for writing.

It is very common and quite normal when you first take up Nordic Walking to sometimes 'miss pole' or pole 'weaker' on the least dominant arm.

The solution:

If you are right handed put your right pole down and practice Nordic Walking using your left pole only (vice versa if you are left handed). That's all you need to do. Practice this regularly and the problem will be no more.

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The next INWA (International Nordic Walking Association) Instructor training courses to be held in Richmond, London, are as follows:

March 18 - 19
April 8 - 9
May 13 - 14
June 17 - 18

No previous qualifications or teaching experience is required for these courses. For more details contact Martin Christie, Education Director of Nordic Walking UK, on 020 8211 3512 or 07989 967 459.

Note: This is the same training course, organised by Nordic Walking UK www.nordicwalking.co.uk that I attended to become an INWA instructor. I can highly recommend it!

Register of Exercise Professionals

Nordic Walking UK offers the only instructor training in the UK recognised by the International Nordic Walking Association. In addition, the training is accredited by the Register Of Exercise Professionals, and is worth 24 Continuing Professional Development points for exercise and fitness professionals on the register, the highest number of points that can be awarded by any one training course

Note: When making enquiries to Nordic Walking UK please let them know that you heard about them via David at Nordic Walking News.

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This information is relevant to the UK - Only.

An Instructor training course to gain the new CYQ (Central YMCA) 'Level 3' 'VRQ' (Vocationally Related Qualification) in Fitness Resistance Walking (Nordic Walking), will be held on May 13th 2006 in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

This externally accredited course is aligned with the UK's 'National Qualifications Framework', and is therefore open to Level 3 Qualified Fitness Instructors only.

Note: Qualified Level 3 fitness instructors who have been Certified by other Nordic Walking Instructor Training Organisations may apply for 'APA' (Accreditation of Prior Achievement) towards obtaining their VRQ.

What does this mean?

If the CYQ approved training provider, in this case 'Drummond Education', can approve your existing Nordic Walking Instructor Certification, you may be able to apply for 'assessment only'...

This means that you would not have to attend and pay for a Level 3 Instructor Training Course (although you would have the option to do so). Instead you could just put yourself up and pay for 'Assessment only' by a qualified CYQ Assessor.

On Assessment day if you meet the National Standards for Level 3 VRQ in Fitness Resistance Walking (Nordic Walking) you will 'Pass' and become qualified. The alternative is to be 'Referred' and you will have the opportunity to be re-assessed at a later date.

Note: For those not familiar with the UK 'National Qualification Framework'; Level 2 Instructor Qualifications (where fitness instructor qualifications start) are equivelent in the 'Academic' world to GCSE (used to be known as O Level). Level 3 Instructor Qualifications are equivalent to A Level (Advanced Level). Level 4 and 5 would be equivalent to 'undergraduate' and 'postgraduate' respectively. Currently there are no level 4 or 5 instructor qualifications in the fitness industry. .

Note: A level 1 Instructor VRQ would be termed as an 'Assistant Instructor. An assistant instructor would not be qualified to take sole charge and 'instruct', they can only 'assist' a qualified instructor (eg level 2 or above)

So... The CYQ 'Level 3 'VRQ' in Fitness Resistance Walking (Nordic Walking)' is the 'Vocational' equivalent to an 'Academic 'A' Level'.

For full details of this new qualification, contact - Gill Cummings-Bell at Drummond Education: Tel: 01628 776 56

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For an additional source of Nordic Walking information check out the website of the International Nordic Fitness Organisation (INFO)

http://www.nordicfitness.net.

INFO member countries include: Germany. Austria, Switzerland, Italy & Benelux Countries

Translation to English:

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer you can translate the INFO website or INFO Member Country websites into English by right clicking your mouse and then clicking 'translate page into English'.

Whilst you don't get the greatest of translations, it does give you the general idea.

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My thanks to fellow Nordic Walking Instructor, Patrick Burtscher for the following article. Patrick is a Director of Australian based Nordic Walking company - Pole Attraction: http://www.poleattraction.com.au
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I came across this in a German fitness magazine. Some guys go to a lot of effort!

Next week four guys want to set a new world record for Nordic Walking in 24 hours. The world record at the time is held by Bernd Beigl who walked 155.8 kms in 24 hours. Andreas Gscheidle from Homburg and his three mates want to walk 7 kms per hour which would allow them to do
more than 160 kms.

Happy Nordic Walking...








Patrick Burtscher
http://www.poleattraction.com.au