Nordic walking and fibromyalgia

In a fibromyalgia study comparing Nordic walking women with women walking without poles, those who Nordic walked not only improved their walking times more significantly than the regular walking group, the Nordic walking group experienced a greater reduction in exercise heart rate (good) and reported significantly better scores in the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire Physical function questions.

Nordic walking appears to have the flexibility for designing aerobic exercise programs that can start and maintain at lower intensity levels while still realizing the benefits of exercise. This is because the poles help activate upper body muscles without requiring higher intensity work from the lower body.