#FinnishCrazyGames: Grab Nordic Walking By the Oars

Nordic walking has its roots in 1930s Finland where it originally began as an off-season training method for competitive cross-country skiers. In Finland, the sport is referred as “pole walking” (aka “Sauvakävely” in Finnish, “kävely” meaning “walking”).

In the 1960’s a physical education teacher, Leena Jääskeläinen introduced “walking with ski poles” into the students’ lessons and 1987 she presented her idea publicly for the first time at the event called Finlandia Walk. Her ideas were noticed by the Finnish Central Association for Recreational Sports and Outdoor Activities and in the 1990’s Nordic walking was promoted as health activity, Finland as a pilot country.

In the year 1997, Finnish sports equipment manufacturer Exel released its first special poles intended for Nordic Walking. The poles had straps to allow walkers to maintain a more relaxed hold on the poles, to avoid sore shoulder muscles. At the same time, Exel also developed the rubber bootie for the poles so it was possible to practice Nordic walking on asphalt roads as well.

Today this sport bodes specialised poles for a technique engages the whole body, with its popularity rapidly growing as witnessed at World Nordic Walking Day hosted at the Embassy of Finland in May this year. Nowadays Nordic walking has more than half a million participants in Finland and even over ten million participants worldwide!

The whole body workout is suitable for all ages and fitness levels with its immense health and wellness benefits. Many scientific studies have found Nordic walking has significantly greater health effects than regular walking, trekking or even jogging. For example, the sport develops core strength, balance and coordinator, burns over 45% more calories than regular walking as well as helps ease neck and back pain. Nordic walking produces an intense workout effect with less perceived exertion and it can be done anywhere!

But why N-oar-dic walking? The short answer: because we Finns are delightfully crazy.

The long answer: rautakanki is a fantastic variation of Nordic walking, where the poles have been replaced with chisel tip crowbars. The grating clang of the crowbars on concrete and the gritted teeth of the walkers as they stride forth wearing heavy protective boots make for a gruelling competition that mesmerises spectators.

However, for safety reasons we've replaced the crowbars with oars. It's still a rather fitting combination as rowing sports and leisure activities in general (including church boats, kayaks, canoes etc.) are particularly popular in Finland, especially on the many lakes and seas that are easily accessible to the public.

You may find it implausible, but we ask you to just imagine … you're in the wilderness with your friend and you've just been rowing, only to find that the connecting river has dried up. You know that the water continues over the next embankment, but you just need to get there. So you roll up your sleeves, grab the oars, tell your friend to carry the boat and start walking.

Check out this video and you will see what Nordic Walking with a little twist looks like.

Finnish Crazy Games is being hosted at the Embassy of Finland to Australia on October 13th 2018 from 10am with the assistance of our major partners KONE, Finnair and Wärtsilä. The event is a fundraiser for Canteen in support of their mission to help youngsters whose lives are impacted by cancer. If you can please donate here. Head on over to our website www.finnishcrazygames.com to learn more about the games and other activities taking place this year.