\n It\u2019s an activity that\u2019s meant to be great for people with bad knees and other injuries that mean they\u2019re finding it harder to walk, which was what initially attracted me to it. However, the idea that it\u2019s primarily a good activity for rehabilitation is one that Lynne is keen to correct.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018Nordic walking is great for anyone, young or old, fit or not so active,\u2019 she tells me and my husband, Pete (the one with the dodgy knees). \u2018It began in Finland as a summertime activity, so that cross-country skiers could continue their training. You\u2019ll see five-year-olds walking with poles, and it\u2019s now huge in lots of countries, including Germany and Spain. People take it really seriously and there are lots of competitions, or you can just do it for fun.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Lynne grew up in Ontario, Canada, and moved to the UK nearly 40 years ago, via time spent living in the Virgin Islands, California and working on yachts. Given her love of the outdoors, I ask why she ultimately chose England over Canada. \u2018People ask that all the time, but it snows there, and I don\u2019t do cold.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)\n<\/p>\n
\n Her early travels made her passionate about grabbing life\u2019s opportunities. \u2018Anyone who\u2019s thinking of travelling should just go,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m always telling young people this.\u2019 When she\u2019s not running classes (which operate between the Isle of Purbeck and the New Forest) she still travels extensively. Last year she spent three months in Costa Rica, working as a volunteer for Raleigh International.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her first career in the UK was as an estate agent, a role which she\u2019s found has similarities with her current work. \u2018When people contact me about walking, I offer them a taster session, which is rather like going to someone\u2019s house to give an evaluation,\u2019 she says. \u2018Both jobs involve lots of explanations, but both also require people to buy into you as a person.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n I suspect that, with her warmth and excellent sense of humour, the latter isn\u2019t hard to achieve. \u2018It\u2019s the Canadian accent,\u2019 she laughs. \u2018It\u2019s a good place to be from, although people often think I\u2019m Scottish, so I guess that\u2019s a good place to be from too.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n At the start of our taster, she hands us a couple of poles each. They look like a lighter, slightly thinner version of normal walking poles, just with detachable straps. After she\u2019s adjusted them, so that our hands sit slightly lower than our elbows, her brief introduction includes information on why Nordic Walking is so good for you.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jess Morency and Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018It\u2019s been scientifically proven that it teaches you to walk as you should,\u2019 Lynne explains. \u2018You just need to do a natural arm swing to the opposing leg and use the straps on your poles to push through each step with the heel of your hand, not gripping the actual pole.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018Done correctly, you\u2019re going to engage the back of the arms, the triceps, the back of the shoulders and then on down the back. So you\u2019ve got all these muscles engaging; bringing everything in, pushing through and taking pressure off the knee and hip joints while activating your upper body and core.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019ve tried Nordic walking once before, but the best tip Lynne gives, which immediately makes a big difference to my technique, is to remove my top finger from my pole handle grip. \u2018If you choose to point it forward, we call that the James, or Jane Bond,\u2019 she says. \u2018It\u2019s important as it helps you position your poles better, giving you more flexibility to push the movement through.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n I say that I\u2019m surprised I wasn\u2019t shown this previously. \u2018Every instructor will teach slightly differently,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019ve trained with two different organisations [Nordic Walking UK and British Nordic Walking] and then walked with walking instructors in Spain. I think that over the 13 years I\u2019ve been teaching, I\u2019ve developed a way of instructing people that works best for both me and them.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n If people enjoy the taster, she recommends they do three more one-hour sessions. In the first she concentrates on cementing the strap technique, in the second it\u2019s all about walking up (and down) hills. She shows us how she teaches the latter and I suggest she looks a bit like a robot. \u2018That\u2019s because I don\u2019t have a hill!\u2019 The final session involves simply going for a walk. \u2018I try to just make it natural,\u2019 she says. \u2018We\u2019ll go to a nice place and walk and talk and, you know, try not to even think about technique.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n These days, a big part of Lynne\u2019s business is taking clients on guided walks. \u2018Growing up, I never thought I\u2019d be someone who\u2019d be a leader but I\u2019ve discovered that people kind of like to be led.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Jess Morency and Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)\n<\/p>\n
\n Every Sunday evening, she emails details about the following week to her team of walkers. Most are regular events, ranging from a Monday Morning Motivator, which takes place at Knoll Beach in Studland \u2013 tides allowing \u2013 to a gentle walk in Poole. She also does night walks with torches and one in a forest where a bit of a work-out with elastic bands is included. Clients buy a booklet of 10 walks and hand in a token each time they\u00a0attend.\n<\/p>\n
\n Each walk has between eight and 15 people, and ranges between three and six miles. Many of Lynne\u2019s clients have walked with her for years, and during that time she\u2019s seen a lot of strong friendships develop. \u2018While I\u2019d love lots of younger people to join in, it\u2019s a brilliant way of getting out and being sociable as you get older,\u2019 she says of her clients, many of whom are women over 60 who have been widowed. \u2018I\u2019ve got a lady who regularly walks with me who\u2019s recently turned 82.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2016, Lynne has also organised annual Nordic walking holidays abroad, which began in Andalusia and have gone on to include trips to Ireland, Scotland, Italy and, next year, Albania. \u2018I was really pleased that the trip sold within two days,\u2019 she says. \u2018One client was so disappointed, I had to extend the numbers.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m not surprised her trips are popular. She works hard to keep the costs as low as possible (most people share rooms and she hates the idea of a \u2018single supplement\u2019) and many of her clients return annually. \u2018Wherever we\u2019ve walked has been great, but I particularly love Spain. The scenery, the gastronomy, how wherever we go we\u2019re treated like family, it\u2019s all just brilliant.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Introduction over, we move onto the forest paths, where Pete and I start practising our walking. It\u2019s not long before I\u2019m trying to stifle my laughter. For some reason, thinking about walking means that my husband suddenly forgets how to do it. Each time he walks, he uses the same leg and arm, meaning that as he tries to self-correct, he starts to wobble. It\u2019s at this point that I see what a brilliant teacher Lynne is. Not only is she calm and kind (while also authoritative), but you can see just how much she wants him to get it. Both of us agree that the session was really good fun, and we\u2019re keen to return for a second.\n<\/p>\n
\n By the end of the hour, she\u2019s also convinced me of the science behind it. At one point she tells me to walk with the sticks, using the straps to push myself forward, then she tells me to lift them in the air. Immediately I see the benefit.\n<\/p>\n
\n As we walk back to the carpark, nodding to dog walkers and runners as we go, I ask Lynne if she has a favourite Dorset walk. \u2018It\u2019s impossible to say, when we\u2019ve got so much on our doorstep,\u2019 she replies. \u2018I like the forest walks, the beach walks. Anywhere you walk on Purbeck, you\u2019re really lucky. It\u2019s like a big outdoor playground where, each time you come, you\u2019re guaranteed to see something\u00a0wonderful.\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Learn more at nordicwalkingfit.co.uk\n<\/p>\n
\n or call Lynne on 07855 869009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an activity that\u2019s meant to be great for people with bad knees and other injuries that mean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84],"class_list":["post-584461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}