NORDIC WALKING FOR KNEE OR HIP REHABILITATION

Walking poles continue growing in popularity for lower body rehabilitation and post rehabilitation applications.  Several benefits contribute to walking poles being well suited for a range of injuries, conditions and post-op recovery applications.  Fittrek’s nordic walking poles and techniques allow an individual to progress from rehabilitation to post rehab, then continue on to fitness conditioning with one piece of equipment.

Benefits include:

• Balanced, bi-lateral unloading of lower extremities.

• Balanced, bi-lateral recruitment of upper body.

• Does not contribute to modified or improper walking gate or stride as uni-lateral devices. (i.e. Canes)

• Fills the void between crutches and walking unassisted.

• Provides increased lateral stability.

• Impact and loading of heel strike is greatly reduced.

• For fitness applications- allows heart rate to increase through increased muscle involvement.

The following is a progression of techniques from most load/impact reduction to least:

OFF ROAD - SPEED - ROAD - FAST POWER - STANDARD POWER - FULL POWER

It is important to note that power, standard and fast techniques slightly increase the leading leg load, however, the load/impact is much lower than those occurring with many other exercises including; running, jogging and aerobic dance. These techniques are best suited for post rehabilitation and fitness applications.