Nordic walking maintains a two-component coordination pattern while rotating plane orientation toward the thigh and shifting in-plane emphasis from the foot to the thigh, suggesting that pole use may modify segmental emphasis without altering coordination dimensionality.
Key Findings
Results
Nordic walking did not alter the overall planarity (dimensionality) of lower-limb coordination compared to normal walking.
Planarity was quantified as the variance explained by the first two principal components (VAFPC1 + VAFPC2) of the thigh, shank, and foot elevation angles.
No significant difference in planarity was found between Nordic and normal walking (p = 0.689, d = -0.12).
VAFPC1 also showed no significant difference (p = 0.065, d = 0.59).
Twelve healthy adults participated in a within-subject experimental design walking at preferred speed with and without poles on an indoor walkway.
Results
VAFPC2 was significantly lower during Nordic walking compared to normal walking.
The second principal component's variance explained was significantly reduced in Nordic walking (p = 0.041, d = -0.67).
This indicates a small but statistically significant compression of variance in the secondary coordination component.
Despite this reduction in VAFPC2, overall planarity (sum of PC1 and PC2 variance) remained unchanged.
Results
Nordic walking shifted the orientation of the coordination plane significantly toward the thigh axis.
The direction cosine of the PC3 normal with the thigh axis (U3t) was significantly further from 0 during Nordic walking (p = 0.002, d = -1.21), indicating a large effect.
U3s (shank axis) showed no significant difference (p = 0.814, d = -0.07).
U3f (foot axis) showed no significant difference (p = 0.064, d = 0.60).
Plane orientation was quantified via the direction cosines of the PC3 normal with each segment axis.
Results
Nordic walking reweighted the in-plane contribution of segments, increasing the thigh's role and decreasing the foot's role in the primary coordination component.
ThighPC1 (squared loading of the thigh on PC1) increased significantly during Nordic walking (p = 0.006, d = 0.98), representing a large effect.
FootPC1 (squared loading of the foot on PC1) decreased significantly during Nordic walking (p = 0.001, d = -1.28), representing a large effect.
ShankPC1 showed no significant difference (p = 0.680, d = 0.12).
These results indicate a proximodistal reweighting of segmental roles within the preserved two-component structure.
Methods
Markerless motion capture and OpenSim were used to obtain and process segment elevation angles for planar covariation analysis.
Thigh, shank, and foot elevation angles were captured during walking with and without poles.
Planar covariation was quantified using principal component analysis, with planarity defined as VAFPC1 + VAFPC2.
Separate paired t-tests were used to compare each dependent variable between Nordic and normal walking conditions.
Participants received standardized instruction prior to data collection.
What This Means
This research suggests that when people walk with Nordic walking poles, the fundamental organizational structure of how their leg segments (thigh, shin, and foot) move together is preserved. The researchers measured the coordinated motion of three lower-limb segments in twelve healthy adults during both normal walking and Nordic walking. They found that the overall 'planarity' — a measure of how efficiently the three segments coordinate within a low-dimensional pattern — did not change with pole use, meaning the legs still coordinated in the same basic two-component framework regardless of whether poles were used.
However, within that preserved structure, Nordic walking did produce meaningful changes in how the segments contributed to movement. Specifically, the thigh played a larger role in driving the primary coordination pattern, while the foot's contribution decreased. The orientation of the coordination plane also shifted toward the thigh axis. This suggests that using poles prompts the body to rely more on the upper leg and less on the foot to organize walking movements, even though the overall complexity of the coordination pattern stays the same.
This research suggests that Nordic walking may offer a way to alter which parts of the leg are most actively engaged during walking without fundamentally disrupting the efficient, low-dimensional coordination that characterizes normal human gait. This could have implications for rehabilitation or exercise programs where modifying how specific leg segments are loaded or engaged is desirable, though further research with larger and more diverse samples would be needed to confirm and extend these findings.
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Kim H, Kong T, Lee G, Lee J. (2026). Nordic walking alters orientation weighting but not dimensionality in lower-limb coordination.. Journal of biomechanics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2026.113528