Free Nordic Walking Courses

Free Beginner Courses for Health & Wellbeing for Brighton & Hove residents

If you fit into one of the below categories, you're eligible to take part in a free Nordic walking beginner course in Stanmer Park before 30 April 2023.

There are four broad categories of people likely to benefit from Nordic walking - people who:

1. are comparatively healthy, e.g. those seeking a healthier, and better quality of, life across the life course
2. have defined health risk factors and self-reported health problems, e.g. overweight, high blood pressure, back pain and mild to moderate anxiety, depression or stress, including carers and the bereaved
3. live with certain long-term/progressive conditions, e.g. diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis & fibromyalgia
4. are recovering from medical treatment/rehabilitation, e.g. for cancer, heart disease, stroke and joint replacement & similar operations.

Courses consist of 4x 1.5 hour sessions and will run over two days usually a week apart. Participants are expected to complete and return a pre-course readiness questionnaire and to attend all four sessions in order to learn foundation-level Nordic walking technique safely & effectively.

Dates/times for the next courses are available at courses. Please be aware that times & dates may change, so check this page first before contacting us.

Allocation of places In order to allocate firm course places, participants must have a certain level of walking fitness and a clear understanding of what kind of exercise Nordic walking involves.

Walking fitness Are you able to walk comfortably for half an hour at a brisk pace, i.e. to the extent that you are breathing harder, feeling warmer, perhaps starting to sweat, but still able to talk with the person at your side?

Weather Our policy is to postpone sessions if over 30mph wind with/without rain is forecast or ice/snow is covering our tracks. Another session will then be offered to try and ensure people don’t miss out.

Equipment Specialist Nordic walking poles are provided on the course. If you decide to take up Nordic walking having successfully completed a course, you will be supplied with a pair of poles free of charge.

More information Nordic walking is learned by participating in a course led by an accredited instructor.

These courses:

• are not the same as a GP Referral for Exercise or Exercise on Prescription Scheme
• require warming up at the beginning of sessions and stretching at the end
• enable participants to reach the foundation level of technique for Nordic walking on-road, off-road, on the flat and over gentle ups and downs

Nordic walking provides aerobic exercise (for the heart & lungs) and strengthens muscles. By improving your normal walking to make it more natural combined with learning how to propel the body forward using specialist poles, Nordic walking engages more muscles throughout the body than both normal walking and walking with trekking poles. With good technique, this makes Nordic walking much better than most other forms of physical activity at exercising the whole body.

More detailed information about Nordic walking is available on these webpages - for its multiple, potential health and wellbeing benefits, click on Benefits.

Booking:

To book a place or make an enquiry, click on Nordic Walking for Health to send an email or text/phone 07813 524587.