August 24, 2005
Ski walkers make strides
Clinics tout health benefits of walking with snow ski poles
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
No snow needed, ski walkers reap numerous health benefits by taking poles to the streets or woods for a brisk walk.
Thursday evening, Pete Edwards held court in front of Horizon Books, enthusing about ski walking and the myriad benefits of what he terms the fastest-growing sport in Europe.
A one-man enthusiasm machine, Edwards conducts ski walking clinics all over the region and country. He gets people of all ages moving and enjoying this low-impact exercise. Thursday evening, Edwards encouraged passerby to try out the cross-country ski poles up and down Front Street. These poles have a removable rubber tip for city or indoor use.
Like any devotee, Edwards has a readily accessible list of ski walking's benefits.
"It burns 20-40 percent more calories and it's good for carpal tunnel and rotary cuff problems," said Edwards, who leads Traverse City Senior Center Hiking Club members on walks every Wednesday morning. "It gives us the proper stride and better posture - biomechanically, it's the better way to walk."
"Three miles with the poles is the same as five miles walking," he added, noting the sport provides both an upper body and lower body workout.
Fred and Janice Linsell of Peninsula Township stopped by to test walk the ski poles. The senior citizens residents work to maintain their mobility and health, trying to stem the challenges of advancing age. Fred Linsell had already been ski walking in the gym on his doctor's recommendation to improve balance and gait. His wife liked it after she tried it out Thursday.
"I think they help me stand up straighter and I need to do everything I can because I was on the edge of osteoporosis," noted Janice.
Edwards has been a ski and running coach for more than two decades and began ski walking himself last summer. An injury that prevented running prompted him to grab his kid's ski poles and hit the trail. He found walking with ski poles great fun and soon a flock of family members - ages 6 to 76, including his mother-in-law - was ski walking with him every day. After a month, he returned to running and did not notice any diminished aerobic capacity.
That fall, he purchased a set of ski poles from Norway - with directions not even translated into English yet - and loved them so much he founded skiwalking.com. Now in addition to his coaching activities for the Glen Lake schools, Edwards promotes ski walking and the one-piece Norwegian poles anywhere he can.
"Seven hundred and fifty thousand Finns can't be wrong," he declared of the sport's daily adherents in Finland. "I've worked with a big Multiple Sclerosis group in New York and even the ones with canes were so much happier with ski poles because they allowed their backs to be up straight."
Graham McFerran attended Edwards' clinic to perfect her ski walking technique before a pilgrimage trip to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. McFerran and her mother, Berry Bateman, will be walking 300 kilometers during their pilgrimage, about 10-15 miles a day. With their October 1 departure date coming up, McFerran brought her mother's poles to Edwards for help with her technique. Not a cross-country skier, the ski walking motions were unfamiliar and awkward at first, but she plans to buy herself a set.
"I've been training all year and I know if I had these poles then I wouldn't have taken those nasty spills I did on icy roads," said McFerran who took a few walks with Edwards to get more comfortable. "My mother has taken his class and I'm excited to learn to do it properly, get rid of all these bad habits."