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Once upon a time a walk in the woods was a relaxing way to kill a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Not any more, it seems – indeed, this particular walk in the hills of Snowdonia was in more danger of killing me than the Sunday afternoon.

For I was Nordic walking, the new cross-training technique from Scandinavia that puts a whole new slant on the gentle art of placing one foot in front of the other. It’s best described as cross-country skiing without the skis. Indeed, Nordic walking was actually developed by professional cross-country and alpine skiers as a cross-training programme for the snow-free summer months, and is now used by mountain athletes such as Martina Ertl of the German Alpine Ski Team, world champion biathlete Ricco Gross, Ed Viesturs, American 8000-metre mountain climber and Rebecca Busch, one of the world’s top adventure racers.

What makes Nordic walking different from regular walking with poles is that it gives you a much more serious work out, with the vigorous pole placement technique markedly improving cardiovascular fitness as well as strengthening your legs, glutes and upper body.

As I was being taken through my paces and taught the technique in the foothills of Snowdon by instructor Pete Kelty I remarked that it felt almost as intensive as running, but without the need to actually break into a trot – which as far as I was concerned was great since I’ve long made a point of never running for anything other than buses and last orders.

Pete agreed (about the intensity of the sport, not running for buses) and also pointed out that unlike running, Nordic walking puts much less stress on your joints, especially the knees, thanks to the support provided by the poles. Research by Dr. G. Neureuther in the 1980s and the world-renowned Steadman-Hawkins Sports Clinic in Boulder, Colorado in the 90s found that with the correct use of walking poles on a mountain walk you can reduce the body weight carried by your legs by 8 kgs, which translates as up to 13 to 33 tons on an ‘average’ hike and as much as a massive 250 tons on a full eight hour trek.

The same research also discovered that poles make ascending less tiring since they assist your arm and shoulder muscles to support and relieve the strain on your legs, and if you maintain a regular walking rhythm with poles it also helps to develop relaxed, calm breathing and increases stamina.

All this makes Nordic walking a good training option for anyone with dodgy knees, as well as being useful for rehabilitation after sports injuries. And because it is, after all, only walking, it’s a great way of getting the more couch potatoish amongst the population out, about and burning off fat.

Most people pick up the technique in an hour or two. You begin by walking normally and letting the poles drag behind you, in order to get into your natural walking rhythm; then you grasp the poles’ moulded hand grips, and plant them loosely at a 45 degree angle to your body and in time to your walking rhythm. Unless you’re relaxed about this you can easily get out of synch with this at first, straightforward as it sounds.

The next step is to actually push with the poles each time you plant them, using the muscles of your upper body to propel you forward along with those of your legs, which by this stage will be making somewhat longer strides than normal, and this is the essence of the whole activity, and the point at which you start to get a real workout.

You should relax your grip on the poles after pushing on them since they have wrist straps that allow them to effortlessly swing back into your palm (they also have an excellent quick release system too which is a real boon if you need to access pockets, rucksack etc.). It’s the action of pushing on the poles, and the work out this provides, which is the fundamental feature of Nordic walking, and by the time you start to use the technique on hill climbs you really do feel that you’re putting in some serious work.

Pete was taking me up 2,861-foot Moel Siabod, above Plas-y-Brenin National Mountaineering Centre, where he plans to start Nordic walking courses in 2005, and whilst the initial walk along forest fire roads wasn’t too taxing I soon broke into a sweat when we started heading uphill. As the slope steepened and became more rocky Pete demonstrated various more advanced techniques involving double pole planting and the use of the poles to balance on unstable terrain, and before I knew it we were on the mist shrouded summit of the mountain.

I undoubtedly felt that I’d had more of a work out than I would on a ‘normal’ walk in the hills, and on the way down I discovered just how much they help reduce the strain on your legs and knees as you descend, as well as helping with balance on more undulating terrain.

Pete says that after a little instruction he’s seen Nordic walking taken up enthusiastically by everyone from kids and pensioners to experienced hillwalkers and mountaineers, and it’s not difficult to envisage Nordic walking poles eventually becoming as much a part of the UK mountain scene as regular walking poles are today. And as Pete pointed out, Nordic walking isn’t just for the mountains. “You can use the technique for a good workout on any footpath, whether you’re in the hills of Snowdonia or your local park”.

Or, I guess, Norway…

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