As broadcast on Monday 2 January by the BBC Radio 4 You & Yours programme ...

Nordic Walking for Health runs taster sessions and courses for beginners as well as regular walks for competent Nordic walkers on weekends and weekdays all year round in and around East Sussex:

• Brighton & Hove and Shoreham
• Seaford/surrounding area near Eastbourne, including Cuckmere Haven, the Seven Sisters & Friston Forest
• The Ashdown Forest, including East Grinstead, Forest Row & Hartfield
• Lingfield, Surrey
• Edenbridge, Kent
• and Crowborough.

Try a taster session first or book a course straight away ...

GROUP COURSE

Basic (no taster session)

This is for people who have already decided to take up Nordic walking, do not require a taster session and want to learn the basic technique as a beginner. It involves four 1.25 hour sessions and costs from £20 per person.

This can then be extended in order to achieve the higher health and/or fitness levels of Nordic walking technique:

Health - an extra 1.5 hour session

Fitness - two extra 1.5 hour sessions

Extra sessions cost from £10 per person. All costs include pole hire.

See the left hand margin for more information, including the latest offers and developments.

Formed in Spring 2006, Nordic Walking for Health has now been running courses for over five years. Its founder is "one of the longest established instructors in the UK" (British Nordic Walking, June 2011).

What is Nordic Walking?

"A stepping stone to becoming more active in changing your life for the better." Peter, Director & Lead Instructor, Nordic Walking for Health. "We provide high quality training in a variety of ways to suit individual needs with an emphasis on excellent technique for effective exercise and improved posture."

Due to its origins, Nordic walking is a bit like cross-country skiing without the skis. It is a new way of walking that can improve health, well-being and quality of life. As merely an enhanced form of natural walking, Nordic walking is suitable for all abilities and ages of people, who can walk swinging their arms. By exercising the upper and lower parts of the body simultaneously, it can:

• Improve and maintain your general health and fitness
• Enable you to keep fit at the level you want or need – from social walker to performance sportsperson
• Provide you with a new and different outdoors leisure activity
• Achieve specific: health benefits, fitness benefits social and emotional benefits

First developed in Finland during the 1930s for cross-country skiers to keep fit in the summer, Nordic Walking evolved into more of a recreational activity in the early 1980s. The first official Nordic Walking poles were launched in 1997 by Exel plc. Nordic Walking is one of the fastest growing recreational fitness activities across the world with participants in nearly 40 countries. The International Nordic Walking Association (INWA) estimates that, globally, there were about 7 million people Nordic Walking at least once a week in 2006.*

By the end of 2007, Nordic Walking UK (NWUK), a national organisation, claimed to have trained over 450 INWA-certified Nordic Walking Instructors in the UK. These instructors taught an estimated 35,000 people to Nordic walk (up from 15,000 in 2006 and 3 to 4000 in 2005).* Other national organisations also exist, e.g. British Nordic Walking, which is now the approved training agency for the INWA certification. NWUK now claim there are 2,000 instructors, that 70,000 people were taught to Nordic walk in 2011 and that, as 2012 begins, over 200,000 people now regularly Nordic walk in the UK**. Its courses are recognised by the YMCA via its central qualification (CYQ).

In order to get the most out of Nordic Walking, effective technique is essential.

It is recommended that you consult your doctor before taking part in a new exercise, should you be concerned in any way.

*The REPs Journal pp19-21 Issue 12 May 2008

**You & Yours, BBC Radio 4, 2 January 2012

Taster Sessions

Hour-long taster sessions are held on weekdays and at weekends. Click on courses above for weekend dates. Click on contact above to book a session (places must be booked in advance).

Nordic Walking for Health runs Nordic Walking sessions from a number of locations:

Brighton & Hove and Shoreham

The NIVEA SUN Yellowave Beach Sports Venue, 299 Madeira Drive BN2 1PS (01273 672222)

riptide Fitness Centre, Kings Road Arches BN1 1NB (01273 725444)

Stanmer Tea Rooms, Stanmer Park BN1 9PZ (01273 604041)

Preston Park Rotunda Cafe, Preston Road BN1 6HN (07505 122 924)

Red Roaster Coffee Shop, 1d St. James Street BN2 1RE (01273 686668)

Hove Park Cafe, Hove Park, Park View Road, BN3 7BF (01273 727003)

The Cafe in the Park, Buckingham Park, Shoreham BN43

On the Brighton to Saltdean Undercliff Path

The Ovingdean Cafe on the beach

The White Cliffs Cafe, Marine Drive, Saltdean BN2 8SQ (01273 309219)

Lewes, Seaford, Friston Forest and the Seven Sisters

The Salts Cafe, Salts Lawn, Marine Parade, Seaford BN15 1DR (01323 492787)

The Hikers' Rest Cafe, East Dean BN20 0DR (01323 423733)

The Outdoor Shop 55 Cliffe High Street, Lewes BN7 2AN (01273 487840)

Forest Row and the Ashdown Forest

Riverview Cafe, Station Road, Forest Row RH18 5DW (01342 823030)

Global Adventurer The Square, Forest Row RH18 5ES near East Grinstead (01342 825069)

Duddleswell Tea Rooms TN22 3BH (01825 712126) near Crowborough

Nordic Walking groups now organise regular walks for competent Nordic Walkers in Brighton & Hove, in Seaford/surrounding area and in the Ashdwon Forest. More details in the left hand margin.

Gift Vouchers

Gift Vouchers are now available from Nordic Walking for Health for that special, fun and unusual present!
Single vouchers are worth £25 each entitling the recipient to a one and a half hour, introductory one-to-one training session that also includes the hiring of Exel Nordic Walker Trainer poles.