Techniques, tips, and tricks: Squat variations

Are you interested in supplementing your Nordic walking? Denise Austin, noted fitness personality, gave some advice on squats. Squats are a great way to build lower body strength and endurance.

Main point:”…perform a squat variation that puts “less pressure” on the joints, while offering the shaping and strength-building benefits of a classic squat.”

Why squat? WebMD makes points that should convince you to add squats to improve your Nordic walking:

• Strengthens your lower body
• Make you use your core muscles.
• Strengthens supporting muscles like:
  • Hip muscles
  • Calves
  • Hamstrings
  • Obliques
• Calorie burning to help with weight loss
• Less chance of injuring knees and ankles by strengthening your tendons, bones, and ligaments
• Makes your knees more stable
• Improves bone mineral density
• Strengthens the skeleton, especially spine and lower body.
• Improves flexibility
• Shapes legs and butt
• Overall improvement of posture and balance

Nordic walkers have an additional way to make squats better.

• You can use your poles for balance as shown in the picture.
• The poles give you balance and support, allowing you to concentrate on the exercise. 
• If you involve your arms when you stand up, you’ll also get a bit of an upper body workout that could help give you a more powerful arm swing.

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