What I've Learned

In the late 1970s, I was hit by a car. The impact broke my leg, separated my knee, and scrambled my brains.

My brains are still a bit scrambled, but my leg and knee both healed nicely, thanks to some excellent surgical work.

A year after the accident, I joined the Army and served for 10 years. Each of those years, I ran three to five miles a day, six days a week, totaling more than a thousand miles a year. My injuries gave me not an ounce of trouble.

Now, the accident and all those miles of running have caught up with me. My right knee, old and arthritic, pains me at every step.

The idea of a knee replacement doesn't thrill me, being fondly attached to the one I was born with. But whenever I run, my knee hurts like fire the rest of the day. Without running, there's nothing to stop me from becoming as wide as I am tall.

Walking is said to be good exercise, but walking is for wimps. Real men run. Nonetheless, I tried walking two miles at a fast pace. It didn't feel like much of a workout. Afterward, my knee complained the same as if I had run.

A stationary bike bored me to distraction within five minutes, even when I tried listening to a book on tape while spinning.

There must be a natural solution to this, I thought. Something other than surgery or anti-inflammatory drugs of some sort.

Willing to try anything, I searched the internet for a running substitute. An article on Nordic walking caught my eye, but I dismissed it. I'd seem people walking with poles, doing a cross country ski motion without the skis. It looked ridiculous.

I ran across Nordic walking a second time, in the form of an instructional video. The person in the video said it was very gentle on the knees, while giving a more vigorous workout than just walking.

Okay, but a decent pair of Nordic walking poles costs $80, which I didn't want to spend just to try it out. I found myself a couple of stout sticks, cut them to the proper length, and stuck rubber tips – the kind used for walking canes – on the bottoms.

The video said to hold the poles, angled backwards, loosely in your hands and swing your arms naturally, dragging the poles. Once this motion is achieved, add a tiny bit more forward motion to the arms and push down on each pole in turn, driving yourself forward with each pace.

If you can see the tips of the poles with your peripheral vision, you're bringing the poles too far forward.

My first ventures into Nordic walking took place early in the morning, so no one could see my clumsy efforts. Soon, though, I had the proper motion and went zooming up the road, slower than a run, but more vigorous than just walking.

After two miles – a mile out and a mile back – my hands and arms and shoulders really felt the effort of helping my legs. The workout felt like a real workout. My knee didn't complain at all, even after I got home.

The wooden poles, I decided, were too heavy. Real Nordic walking poles are lighter, but $80 was still too steep for me. A trip to a thrift shop netted me two powder blue ski poles for a mere four dollars. Another eight bucks, spent on line, got me some fancy angled walking tips meant to go on the $80 poles. I cut the ends off my el cheapo ski poles and stuck the walking tips on.

Wow. The result was a pair of super light, perfect walking poles.

My knee is happy. My metabolism is happy. My wallet is happy.

Nordic walking. YMMV (That's internet speak for Your Mileage May Vary), but for me, it's a good solution.