Does pole walking, also known as Nordic pole walking or “exercise,” beat regular walking for depression, sleep quality, and weight loss?
Exercise recommendations for obesity have been made referred as “the mysterious case of the (almost) completely ignored public health guideline”. Government, scientific and professional organizations call for at least one hour of exercise per day for weight management, but “almost no obese adults achieve this goal.” As you can see below and at 0:32 in my video Are there benefits of stilt walking for weight loss?surveys show American men and women clock television ten times more than they exercise.
For obese Americans, it can be even worse. Only 2 percent area even 30 minutes a day as you can see below and at 0:36 on mine videoand the percentage undue an hour of exercise per day is expected to be close to zero.
Why don’t obese people exercise more? Why don’t we ask them? When asked, “obese adults commonly describe exercise as unpleasant, uncomfortable, and unpleasant.” How can we break this vicious cycle, where inactivity can lead to weight gain, which can lead to further inactivity and even more weight gain? The first thing to recognize is that “it is normal and natural to be physically lazy.”
“Nothing in Biology does Sense apart from the light of evolution’ is the title of a famous essay written by a well-known geneticist. Laziness is in our genes. We evolved to instinctively avoid unnecessary effort to conserve energy for survival and reproduction. These days, there’s no shortage of fuel available, yet hard inertia remains. “The vast majority of people today behave like their ancestors, exercising only when it is fun (as a form of play) or when necessary.’ Just like dietary change for weight control, exercise is the only way to go transition to work long-term means that it becomes “a fixed, ideally lifelong, habit of activity”. Exercise is only effective if it is sustainable. So, we need ‘to transform our environments to require more physical activity’, such as using a treadmill desk and discover how to make exercise more enjoyable. It should just be a walk in the park — literally, maybe!
Some sage advice from a 1925 medical journal entry: “The best prescription for being written for a walk is to take a dog…and a friend”. Listening to your favorite music can also help. Music has been described as a “legitimate method” for enhancing peak performance and, more importantly, strengthening the enjoyment of high intensity interval training. As you can see below and at 2:37 in mine videolistening to a preferred playlist during exercise can significantly restrict The “rate of perceived exertion”, which is how hard you feel your body is working. When severely obese young people took on a treadmill and told to run until exhaustion, with or without music, those listening to their favorite songs “ran significantly longer,” tending to continue about 5 percent. This was labeled a “distraction”. the music may have helped them take their minds off the feelings of fatigue. If this is the case, listening to a podcast or audiobook can have a similar effect.
One way to up your game is with spades. The so-called Nordic walking, too known like exerstriding or Viking hiking, it was originally developed in Scandinavia to keep cross-country skiers training in the summer. It has since gained popularity worldwide as a general fitness activity. Increased involvement of the upper body musculature can result to 18 to 22 percent increased calorie expenditure with walking alone (accordinglyin part, to your pole handling technique). Does this translate into accelerated weight loss?
Before and after studies flaunt pole walking weight loss, in comparison in sitting control, but what about compared to normal walking? Of the four such studies I could locate, comparing three times a week 40 to 60 minutes of Nordic walking with regular walking, each found no significant difference in measures of body fat after 8 weeks, 12 weeksanother at 12 weeksor 13 weeks old. You can see the last one below and at 4:16 in mine video.
There are, however, other benefits compared to normal walking, such as rose upper body muscle mass, improved muscular endurance and rose power, as seen below and at 4:20 in my videothough not as much as it was seen with resistance band training. But, as I was writing How not to dietthere was no evidence of a weight-loss enhancing effect, so Nordic walking didn’t make the cut. Just as we were about to press, a study was done published—the first to combine Nordic walking with a diet, compared to the same diet as regular walking. And, once again, no significant difference was found in body weight or anything else. There was a hint that those in the pole group enjoyed it more, and after all, exercise only works if you do it, so that might be a benefit.
There may be other benefits. As you can see here and at 5:05 on my videoNordic walking rhythm of regular walking in reducing symptoms of depression and improving sleep quality.
Maybe this one must not surprising given the higher intensity of pole walking exercise, even approaching that of jogging at higher speeds, shown below and at 5:15 in my video. And that’s where I see the role of walking poles — to bridge the tension gap between people who are ready to graduate from walking but aren’t ready for more rigorous activities like running. The only possible downsides hectare the added cost and, “reminiscent of Monty Python’s famous ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ sketch… ‘feeling pretty ridiculous’ trying Nordic walking for the first time”.
However you walk, there are many benefits. Watch my video Longer life at close range.
Related videos include; How much exercise to maintain weight loss? and How much should you exercise?.
