Nordic walking versus walking with hand weights

Here's an interesting comparison of the effectiveness of Nordic walking and walking with hand weights.

Comparison	Nordic walking	Hand weights	What the Nordic Walking Guy says (based on experience)
Exertion	"…the real muscle exertion in the upper body comes from the backward/downward push"	"… the muscles lifting the weight forward get most of the exercise"	This has been my experience as well.
Range of motion	"…limitations in the range of motion because the sticks are fitted to one’s height and their benefit is derived from gripping the ground and pushing off, not being raised over head"	"Raising the arms and weights above the shoulder to overhead  (“Level III”) significantly enhances the workload during exercise."	The author of the linked article used fixed length Nordic walking poles. Adjustable models are also available (I use adjustable Nordic walking poles) and make it possible to give yourself different lengths during the same walk. For lower intensity parts of the walk, you can shorten the poles a bit. For higher intensity parts of the walk, you can lengthen the poles. Because modern poles have quick release gloves, you can let go and use the poles in an overhead pressing and other kinds of motion. As light as the poles might be, after some repetitions of the overhead pressing motion, I guarantee your shoulders will feel a burn. Try it where you are right now without anything in your hands. Just raise your arms overhead and start doing a pressing motion and see how quickly your shoulders start to burn.
Exercise variety	"…Nordic Walking definitely DOES NOT offer this variety of exercise. The same predominant exercise pathway is used throughout the effort without variation for the most part. Boredom may be avoided by the scenic nature of the walking path, but not by exercise variation for the most part!"	"numerous variations in exercise movement to not only work as much muscle as possible, but to avoid boredom!" "…can be used in some completely different way like swings across the chest to work “fresh” muscle groups while continuing to walk"	I am an avid Nordic walker and have found it easy to add variety to a walk by incorporating bodyweight exercises. For example, I can stop, do push-ups, and then resume my walk. Later, I can do squats. Farther along in the walk, I can do crunches for leg raises. This is possible because most Nordic walking poles have quick release gloves that make it convenient to quickly shift to a different form of exercise. If having heavier weights to your poles is the goal, that is possible as well. The conclusion of the matter is that adding variety to the walk is very possible.
Safety	"at times the Nordic Sticks seemed a bit more like “Trekking Poles” but they did their job of not only providing upper body exercise, but also making the hike safer.  In the event of a poisonous snake nearby, I’d rather have a Nordic stick handy if needed than a hand weight!"	We took the “rugged” trail first using Nordic Walking sticks. Later we took the “level” trail using HeavyHands. (We found out they were both equally rugged and probably would have done best with the Nordic sticks on both of them, but “oh well”! )	One way that Nordic walking poles made trail walking safer is because they have metal tips that can dig into the ground and baskets (like those on skis) that would keep the polls from seeking too far into softer ground. Personally, if I saw a poisonous snake on the trail, I wouldn't stick around to use the Nordic walking poles. I I would turn around and run!