Nordic Pole Walking for Health & Fitness
Dr.Klaus Schwanbeck

For more than 20 years, I was looking for a physical activity everybody can do, especially people, who are not used to do or don’t like a regular exercise program like running, joining a gym, cycling, swimming etc. Then, more than a decade ago, the first Nordic Pole Walkers showed up in Germany.

For our patients at our doctor’s office in Berlin, Germany my wife Dr.Sabine Schwanbeck (MD) and I started to incorporate NPW as a physical activity to support different therapy programs, normally based on medication.

Our patients immediately discovered the instant improvement: they felt stronger in their upper body, endurance improved, back- and neck pain iminished or blood pressure and blood sugar (Diabetes Type2) decreased quickly. We could reduce medication drastically.

Since 2000 Nordic Pole Walking in Germany is the most popular outdoor fitness and wellness sport, and a therapeutically method as well.

Most of Germany’s health insurance companies pay the cost for NPW instruction with certified NPW instructors since 2003.

Today, we have many scientific and clinical studies which prove the increased benefits for fitness & wellness, for health prevention and improvement of various health disorders in comparison to regular walking. They also prove, although Nordic Pole Walking is a low-impact physical activity, that the benefits are over walking without poles, because with each stride you have more than 90% of all body muscles incorporated in the exercise: ‘The more muscles (lower extremities plus upper body) are working the more you enhance your metabolism, caloric expenditure and hormone system’.