Nordic Walking courses in Bolzano and the Polesine

Nordic Walking is not walking with two poles in your hands. It is a precise movement in which the pole is planted behind the body and becomes a push: the legs stop doing all the work and with every stride the shoulders, back and core come into play. Learned well, it becomes automatic and you stop thinking about it. Learned badly, it stays a tiring walk with two useless weights hanging off your hands.

What Nordic Walking actually is

It began in Finland as summer training for cross-country skiers and became a discipline of its own in the 1990s. The difference from ordinary walking is entirely in the upper body: the arm doesn't swing passively, it pushes. The pole touches the ground level with the rear foot, angled backwards, and the hand releases it at the end of the push, held only by the glove-style strap.

That's where the two claims you always hear come from: that it works most of the body's muscles, and that it puts less strain on the leg joints than running. Both are true — but only with correct technique. With the wrong movement the load isn't redistributed at all, and on top of that you grip the handle for the whole session, so you get home with tight shoulders and forearms.

How the course works

The beginner course is four ninety-minute lessons, in small groups. Four isn't a sales figure: it's how long the movement takes to settle. In the first lesson almost everyone does it correctly while watching themselves; by the third they do it without watching; by the fourth they keep doing it while chatting to the person next to them. That's the point where the technique is yours.

1. 1

   The stride, without poles

   We start empty-handed: foot roll, stride length, natural arm swing. If the stride isn't clean, the poles amplify the mistake rather than correcting it.

2. 2

   The push and the strap

   We add the poles by dragging them, without pushing, until the arm finds its rhythm again. Then we introduce planting behind the foot and opening the hand.

3. 3

   Rhythm and breathing

   We lengthen the stride and work on the breath: two steps in, two steps out. This is where the movement starts giving back more than it costs.

4. 4

   Uphill, downhill and mixed terrain

   We take the technique off the flat meadow: uphill the push gets shorter, downhill the pole goes back to being a support. This is where Nordic Walking meets hiking.

Who it's for

You don't need to be fit. You need to be able to walk for half an hour without getting out of breath, and almost everyone clears that bar. Three profiles keep turning up in my groups: people looking for a regular year-round activity without joining a gym, hikers who want to tackle climbs with less load on the knees, and people who bought poles on their own and, six months later, suspect they're using them wrong.

If you have a particular medical condition or you're in rehabilitation, talk to your doctor first: I teach the technique, I don't replace medical advice. That said, we adapt the pace, and in a group of six that's genuinely possible.

How to choose poles (afterwards, not before)

The question always comes up in the second lesson, and that's the right moment: before then you'd be choosing at random. Three things actually matter. Length, which you get by multiplying your height by 0.66 and rounding to the nearest model. The strap, which must be a detachable glove type, not a loop: it's what lets you open your hand at the end of the push. And the material: the more carbon, the less vibration reaches your elbow, but below 40% the difference from good aluminium doesn't justify the price.

Three-section telescopic poles look like the clever choice because they fit in a rucksack. For Nordic Walking they're the worst compromise: they flex under the push and the joints work loose. If you walk mostly on the flat, get a one-piece pole in your size.

Where we walk

I work in two areas. In South Tyrol, in the Bolzano basin, where the valley-floor paths and hillside walks offer even ground and manageable climbs: the right setting for taking the technique uphill. And in the Polesine, between Rosolina and the Po Delta, where the embankments give you kilometres of unbroken flat with no junctions — perfect for long, steady rhythm — through a landscape that changes with every season.

If you're already a formed group, a club or a company, I'll travel outside these two areas too. Write and tell me where you are and we'll see.

Frequently asked questions