You Tube Margaret Martin Nordic Walking with Weighted Vest or Back Pack

[AnnieW55]

Just watched the above You Tube post and thought it might be worth mentioning that she posits that those with kephosis might be better off Nordic Walking with a small back pack - have a look for her explanation. I don’t use either at the moment.

I am just getting into Nordic Walking and am enjoying it - can certainly feel when I am getting it right (technique slips now and again 😊). I started with a taster session, followed by a tuition session and am now just going out by myself . I may join in on one of the many group sessions going on at some point but I generally prefer being out on my own

[walk21]

I Nordic walk on my own too. I like to stop and look at the view or the flowers, and the local group just concentrate on timing. It has done me the world of good though.

[Fruitandnutcase]

It’s interesting what you’re saying about being part of a group, I start at Nordic walking as part of a group but it was organised as a social occasion as well and while I like talking to people I really didn’t like having to constantly make small talk with people I didn’t know all that well (although they were all very nice people) and probably wasn’t going to get to know much better.

I think my problem is that when I walk I kind of meditate and think about things so I’m quite happy not to talk to anyone. Like you I enjoy walking on my own.

I talk to my husband when I walk with him and I’ve got a friend that I go walking with and we talk all the time but somehow it’s different, even though we talk all the time we don’t feel we have to say anything whereas I found the process of getting to know someone in the course of a walk, making polite conversation and asking questions about them and worse still having to remember what we had spoken about the following weeks was all a bit of a strain.

It’s not that I’m particularly antisocial but we walked in pairs and changed partners several times during the course of the walk and for me the constant having to be sociable with strangers became a drag and spoiled the walk for me - and I know the saying ‘ a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet’ - but I much prefer my ‘walking meditation’ where I mull things over in my head.

[AnnieW55 in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

You’ve summed it up perfectly. I think it is walking mediation for me too, I just let my mind wander and often have no idea what I’ve been thinking about. I haven’t joined a group and now think it highly unlikely. It may come back to bite me at some point but I am really happy in my own company.

When I head for the hills with my husband we do talk but it is mainly a companionable silence (it takes my breath keeping up with him, I think that is his plan😀).

Do remember to take your phone with you when alone though. My days of not taking it ended when I had an accident (with people around fortunately) and it brought home to me how not having a phone with me could have bad consequences.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to AnnieW55]

Its funny you should say that about the phone, I’ve found that since I broke my arm and discovered I have osteoporosis I always take my phone with me when I go out.

Years ago we were in a forestry commission forest near to where we live, we were walking and taking photographs. I didn’t see my husband for ages and when he finally turned up I said ‘where were you?’ He said ‘I fell in a ditch and couldn’t get out’ I asked why he hadn’t shouted for me and he said that he had done but that I hadn’t heard him.

So I bought him a whistle t put on his key ring and he has always carried that with him.