Nordic walking must be a common fitness technique and one of the effective rehabilitation menu for many gait disorders on oxygen intake and muscle activity

Abstract

Nordic walking (NW) has spread recently not only in European countries but in Japan as well. Although the use of NW has begun in several clinical settings, opinions remain divided on exercise load and muscle activity of the legs during walking. So subjects’ oxygen intake and leg muscle activity during NW were measured and compared with normal walking. The subjects were 14 healthy adult men (21.3 years old). Normal walking and NW were performed with a uniform walking cadence of 110 steps per minute. Subjects walked 10 m in each movement task, and oxygen intake, carbon dioxide emission and muscle activity were measured. Activities in the rectus femoris, adductor magnus, tensor fasciae latae, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscles were measured. The obtained electromyogram waveforms were processed with a 20-500 Hz bandpass filter, after which the integrated value from full-wave rectification was obtained. The integrated value from full-wave rectification for each muscle during walking was normalized with 100% maximum voluntary contraction (%MVC). In the measurement of the exercise load, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide emission were measured for 10 minutes and compared every minute though the paired t -test ( P < 0.05). %MVC tended to increase in the rectus femoris and adductor magnus muscles during NW compared with normal walking. In contrast, %MVC tended to decrease in the tensor fasciae latae, tibialis anterior, and lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscles during NW compared with normal walking. Oxygen intake of NW were higher than normal walking after 5 minutes from the beginning of walking exercise. We discovered that NW needs more oxygen and muscle activity than Normal walking. NW must become one of the effective total exercise menu for many elderly person with knee pain and hip pain. This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16K16473.