A good pair of walking poles is all you need to get started as it is a good exercise for all ages and requires little investment. Once the walking bug has bitten you and you look forward to your daily walks, you might consider investing in walking poles. Walking poles can be purchased in many different varieties, including sturdier poles for hiking. Walking poles come in pairs. You will need one for each hand. The most basic poles provide an easy handle for gripping, a wrist strap to hold them in place, and a rubber tip at the bottom to help provide placement on the ground. The poles should fit your height or be adjustable so you can change the setting to your appropriate height. When walking with your poles you should be able to easily strike the ground with each pole while maintaining good walking posture.
Three important advantages of these poles
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Balance and Posture
Walking poles can give your body the needed balance or stability so as not to lose your footing when walking on unlevel areas especially for walkers with knee or leg problems. They help to transfer some of our weight to our shoulders, arms and back, which can reduce leg fatigue and add thrust to the uphill slopes. The crampons help to provide more stability for the legs with fewer chances of injury, therefore people who may have given up walking for pleasure find they are able to walk again. When poles and arm motions are used properly it enhances good posture.
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Full Range of Motion
Walking poles work the arms, shoulders and upper chest and back muscles providing a full range of motion movement. The stretching and lengthening of the upper body muscles are often tight due to the hunching forward that many people adopt while working at desks, computers, reading or watching TV. They loosen up the knots that many people acquire through stress by tightening their neck and shoulder muscles.
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Maintain Brain Function
Our brains are stimulated by using the poles so that our thinking is clearer. Although few people realize it, exercise can also create the production of certain chemicals in the brain that produces the same satisfying feeling you get after eating certain foods that have very likely contributed to the weight problem. Walking poles finely sharpened energy balance that occurs in the brain during exercise appears to have implications not only for how well the brain functions during exercise, but also for how well our thinking and memory work the rest of the day.