Nordic walking and your back

A research article about the effect of Nordic walking for elderly women with low back pain yielded some positive results. The goal was to see if Nordic walking could "low back pain and change the spine shape in elderly women."

Points:

• "…low back pain decreased because the upper extremities were used together with the lower extremities during the exercises performed using the Nordic poles."
• "…strengthened the paraspinal muscles and enabled the participants to maintain a steady position for a long period, because the abdominal muscles, pelvic muscles, and sensory nervous system were used together."
• "…the effect of pain reduction in the muscle from the enhancements and the reduction of the weight load reduces the pain as a result of the normalization of the spine."

The overall effect was to reduce pain and make the back more stable. This is encouraging for people who might have posture problems. To encourage erect posture, look forward at some point in the distance, not at the ground all the time.

Some warm up moves prior to Nordic walking.

I came across this idea about what to do at lunchtime.