{"id":21979,"date":"2018-06-23T11:39:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T18:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/?p=21979"},"modified":"2018-06-26T12:58:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T19:58:51","slug":"active-living-seniors-nordic-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/active-living-seniors-nordic-walking\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Living for Seniors and Nordic Walking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Healthcare professionals working with older adults are routinely prescribing walking, as part of rehabilitation and overall health and wellness programs. There are over 100 research studies identifying health benefits of adding specialized poles to any walking routine. Due to the improved balance, posture, reduce impact off painful joints and improved mood and confidence health, this accessible and affordable activity, urban poling, and especially the use of <a href=\"http:\/\/urbanpoling.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Urban Poling<\/a>&#8216;s unique ACTIVATOR\u2122 poles, has become a popular choice for persons requiring help with stability and balance, as well as for older or perhaps less active adults. The ACTIVATOR\u2122 poles are the only ones like it available on the market which have been co-designed by an occupational therapist for maximum safety, comfort and effectiveness, as well as reducing the factors related to falls.<\/em> &#8212;<a href=\"https:\/\/urbanpoling.com\/education\/academy\/advisory-board\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Agnes Coutinho<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-21981\" src=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nordic-walking-picture-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nordic-walking-picture-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nordic-walking-picture-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nordic-walking-picture-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nordic-walking-picture.jpg 966w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Research Benefits<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Evidence based research relating to older adults clearly identify poling, with the proper training, as a healthy activity suited for improving quality of life. Proven benefits include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase balance &amp; stability<\/li>\n<li>Increase in mobility<\/li>\n<li>Improve posture<\/li>\n<li>Reduce impact off lower extremity joints<\/li>\n<li>Improve gait speed<\/li>\n<li>Improve strength (poling can engage up to 90% of your muscles)<\/li>\n<li>Increase confidence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Short-term and long-term effects of Nordic Walking\u00a0training on balance, functional mobility, muscle strength and aerobic endurance among Hungarian community-living older people: a feasibility study.\u00a0<\/strong>Balance, functional mobility and aerobic endurance significantly improved in the Nordic walking\u00a0group. \u00a0This study showed that Nordic Walking\u00a0is a simple, well\u2013tolerated and effective physical activity for older people in Hungary.<sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>Effect Of Walking Poles On Dynamic Gait Stability\u00a0on the Elderly.\u00a0<\/strong>Texas Women\u2019s University study, which concluded\u00a0that walking poles provided increased gait stability at both preferred and fast speed.<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>Effects of Nordic walking\u00a0compared to conventional walking\u00a0and band-based resistance exercise on fitness in older adults.\u00a0<\/strong>While all modes of exercise improved various components of fitness, Nordic walking\u00a0provided the best well-rounded benefits by improving upper-body strength, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. Therefore, Nordic walking\u00a0is recommended as an effective and efficient mode of concurrent exercise to improve overall functional fitness in older adults.<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>The effects of pole walking on health in adults: A systematic Review.\u00a0<\/strong>The effects of pole walking (PW) on cardiorespiratory fitness were most extensively studied. The most frequently examined psychosocial measure was quality of life. All studies reported at least one beneficial effect of PW compared with the control\u00a0group. The results of this systematic review indicate that PW\u00a0\u00a0programs have some beneficial effects on both physical and psychosocial health in adults with and without clinical conditions.<sup>4<\/sup><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Diana Oliver is a dynamic business professional with a extensive background in marketing, sales and fitness. She has a passion for promoting the many health benefits of Urban Poling, which stems from her personal experience. Diana combined Urban Poling with other positive lifestyle choices to regain a healthy weight and improve her cardiovascular health following two strenuous pregnancies. Her positive recovery has instilled a drive to help change the face of health care in Canada. \u00a0In 2012, she became a certified urban poling instructor and taught classes in her own Pilates business. \u00a0In 2014, became a partner in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/urbanpoling.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Urban Poling Inc<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(1)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/25303166\">Viraq et al., 2014<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(2) Kwon, Silver, Ryu, Yoon, Newton &amp; Shim, 2006 (unpublished)<\/p>\n<p>(3)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24149147\">Takeshima et al., 2013<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(4)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.medscape.com\/medline\/abstract\/22734947\">Fritschi et al., 2012.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The information in this article is not intended to replace existing rehabilitation programs. The testimonials are those of independent therapists and are not a guarantee of results.\u00a0The consumer should not\u00a0rely\u00a0solely on this\u00a0publication\u00a0but should also consult their physician or therapist.\u00a0Urban Poling Inc. and its employees and representatives do not accept any liability for the information contained in this publication or any damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Healthcare professionals working with older adults are routinely prescribing walking, as part of rehabilitation and overall health and wellness programs. There are over 100 research studies identifying health benefits of adding specialized poles to any walking routine. Due to the improved balance, posture, reduce impact off painful joints and improved mood and confidence health, this accessible and affordable activity, urban poling, and especially the use of Urban Poling&#8216;s unique ACTIVATOR\u2122 poles, has become a popular choice for persons requiring help with stability and balance, as well as for older or perhaps less active adults. The ACTIVATOR\u2122 poles are the only ones like it available on the market which have been co-designed by an occupational therapist for maximum safety, comfort and effectiveness, as well as reducing the factors related to falls. &#8212;Dr. Agnes Coutinho Research Benefits Evidence based research relating to older adults clearly identify poling, with the proper training, as a healthy activity suited for improving quality of life. Proven benefits include: Increase balance &amp; stability Increase in mobility Improve posture Reduce impact off lower extremity joints Improve gait speed Improve strength (poling can engage up to 90% of your muscles) Increase confidence Short-term and long-term effects of Nordic Walking\u00a0training [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":21981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,134,198,193],"class_list":["post-21979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-professionals","tag-healthy-aging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}