Compared to regular walking, Nordic walking involves applying force to the poles with each stride. Nordic walkers use more of their entire body (with greater intensity) and receive fitness building stimulation not as present in normal walking for the chest, lats, triceps, biceps, shoulder, abdominals, spinal and other core muscles. This extra muscle involvement leads to enhancements over ordinary walking at equal paces such as:

• increased overall strength and endurance in the core muscles and the entire upper body
• significant increases in heart rate at a given pace
• greater ease in climbing hills
• burning more calories than in plain walking
• improved balance and stability with use of the poles
• significant unweighting of hip, knee and ankle joints
• provides density-preserving stress to bones

References

1. The Capital Times newspaper, Madison, WI, USA, Dec. 13, 1988
2. Cooper Institute, "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sports," 2002
3. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Supplement to VOL. 24, NO.5, May 1992
4. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise VOL. 27, NO. 4 April1995:607-11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_walking