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1. Introduction
Walking is a basic motor skill, which can provide a pleasurable and rewarding physical activity in everyday life [1,2]. Nordic Walking (NW) is a four limb form of locomotion that involves the upper limbs through the use of poles, thus increasing the number of muscles activated [3] particularly those of the upper extremities [4]. In recent years, Nordic Walking has become increasingly popular because it allows performance of physical activity requiring a higher energy expenditure and an unaltered or diminished rating of perceived exertion (RPE) compared to ordinary walking (W) [5,6]. This makes NW particularly attractive for people interested in weight loss [5]. Moreover, the use of poles in NW has been proposed as a way to reduce the load on knees in comparison to ordinary W, though there are contrasting opinions regarding this issue [7,8].
For these reasons, NW has been promoted as an approach for the prevention of several diseases and to be included in the rehabilitation process. In fact, regular practise of NW has been reported as beneficial for chronic low back pain [9], osteoporosis [10], in rehabilitation after both coronary disease [11] and breast cancer [12], intermittent claudication [13], and in participants affected by Parkinson’s [14].
Despite the wealth of evidence regarding energy consumption during NW training sessions [3,5,6,7,15,16,17,18], it would appear that no studies have investigated the physiological and perceptual response of NW compared to W in a natural environment. Unlike in controlled laboratory conditions, a natural environment provides tracks with variable slopes and undulating surfaces of different terrain that may affect any differences in the physiological and perceptual responses between NW and W.
Thus in this study we aimed to assess the differences between NW and W including walking mechanics, heart rate, energy consumption, and rating of perceived effort in a group of participants following the same path in a mountain environment with poles (NW) and without poles (W).
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participant Characteristics
A group of 21 participants (13 male/8 female, age 41 ± 12, body mass index BMI 24.1 ± 3.7) were recruited, all of whom were certified Nordic Walking instructors to ensure consistent and repeatable technical execution. All 21 participants took part in the first test of the study, while a subgroup...