Nordic Walking - Warming Up & Cooling Down
Like any other intense sport or recreational activity, Nordic Walking should always be started with Warming up and be ended with Cooling down exercises. Warming up lessens the risks of getting injuries, relaxes the muscles, and lubricates the joints. Cooling down, on the other hand, reduces the risk of muscle soreness, lessens the adrenaline level in the blood, and relaxes the body.
Warming Up
A Warming up session usually takes less than an hour. You can start off with 5-10 minutes of low speed walking which is enough to warm the muscles in your body, most especially your arms and legs. After that, do a series of different stretching exercises that involves the use of your main piece of equipment – your Nordic Walking Poles. Using your poles during a Warm up session will prepare both your mind and body for the real exercise training.
Some of the stretching exercises you can do on your Warm up session include forward, back and step squats, shoulder flexes, side bends, torso twist, and stretching of the hip, thighs, and calves. These stretching exercises will warm up various parts of the body - from the shoulders to the calves. For an all-out body exercise, performing straight back squats is highly recommended.
Cooling Down
Cooling down is highly recommended after Nordic Walking. This will effectively relax your body and help it recover fast from the invigorating training exercise you just had. Exercises to cool down are similar to Warm up exercises since all you need is to involve the main muscles in your body for a couple of minutes of stretching. Stretching should be done gradually, with each stretch to be held for at least half a minute. Slowly increase the degree of your stretch as long as your muscles allow it, and then relax it gradually before repeating the stretch.
Every Nordic walker should perform exercises to warm up and cool down, even for at least a few minutes. This is to improve their performance and to ensure that the body stays at its functional shape particularly during harder workouts. Surely, you would not like to experience having muscle soreness after each Nordic Walking session, or worse, whilst doing the activity.
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