What is Qi-Walking?
Qi-Walking is a way of moving your body in a gentle, safe way for physical and mental health.
You can do it with or without any equipment, anywhere you can walk safely.
It is a combination of Qigong and walking.
Qigong is like Tai-Chi and is designed to cultivate health in your body and mind.
It has been practised in China for thousands of years.
The movement of walking has many benefits and helps to support the natural health of your body.
The combination of Qigong and walking focuses on mindful movement, breathing and cultivating Qi (energy) for your body and mind.
For added benefit, you can also do Qi-Walking using specialised poles for extra exercise, and support.
This involves using the specialised poles from Polewalking, a similar method to Nordic Walking, with some slight differences, and even more health benefits.
Matt runs classes in Qi-Walking, both with poles and without poles.
To learn Qi-Walking, you may choose from a:
- Group Class
- Private Class
To find out more, please contact Matt acupuncturematt@icloud.com or call/text 0427539382.
What are the benefits of walking sticks (poles)?
(From The complete guide to walking poles, by Dr. Juliette Fritschi, physiotherapist)
The benefits of walking with poles are many and varied.
Over 270 studies have looked into the benefits and here are 10 for you:
- It whittles your waist—Your abs tighten each time you push off with your poles. So if you walk at an average pace of 1000 steps per kilometre, that’s the equivalent of 1,000 abdominal contractions every kilometre or 1,800 each mile.
- Your knees and hips will thank you—The poles let you offload weight from your hips and knees into your upper body. You can walk further, faster and with a reduction of weight-bearing pain.
- It revs up the calorie burning—Research has found that walking with poles burns an average of 20% and up to 46% more calories than standard walking.
- It sculpts your arms and shoulders— Nordic walking uses 90 percent of your muscles. So while walking is a great exercsie for leg muscles, adding poles will pull in the often underused upper body muscles, pecs, triceps, and biceps.
- It helps balance your blood sugar—The full-body workout with poles helps keep blood sugars in a healthy range. This is especially important for those who are pre-diabetic or diabetic.
- You’ll straighten up and feel more confident—Your upper back muscles (the ones that pull your shoulders back) tighten each time you plant your poles and push down and back which is with every step.
- It’s a fun social workout—Because Nordic walking is relatively cheap, easy and accessible to a large range of physical abilities, friends and family members can get together to walk and talk.
- It’s an amazing stress buster—The smooth rhythmic action provides a distraction from everyday concerns and lifts your mood. As it is an outdoor exercise, there is also an effect known as “green exercise” which researchers have found is also a mood booster.
- You can adjust the intensity—Urban poling is an energizing activity that can be enjoyed by people of any age and athletic ability. You can use the poles either to push more firmly and increase your walking workout, or, you can use them to help balance you if you are less confident when walking outdoors.
- It’s a great running alternative—Because Nordic walking is higher intensity than walking, but doesn’t jar the joints, it is a great alternative to running for older athletes, or runners recovering from injury. It also works well instead of trail running for those with injuries, or poor stability in their ankles.
