Nordic Walking and Double Poling: Investigating a Movement Born in Cross-Country Skiing and Kept Out of Competition

Nordic walking was born in the tracks of cross-country skiing. In 1930s Finland, skiers deprived of snow in summer were already walking while pushing on their poles to keep the movement and their fitness. Sixty years later, that summer offshoot became a sport in its own right, with its clubs, federations and championships. And here is the paradox: the technique that came to dominate the highest level of cross-country skiing, double poling, has no place in Nordic walking competition. The king of movements on one side, absent on the other. The gap intrigues, and it has been quietly stirring the community for several seasons. Here is what you need to understand it, sources included.

A daughter of cross-country skiing

To grasp the debate, you have to go back to the origin. Nordic walking, or sauvakävely in Finnish, comes directly from cross-country skiing. As early as the 1930s, Finnish skiers trained in summer by walking with their aluminium ski poles, trying to reproduce the gliding sensation and the push of the winter movement (marche-nordique.net).

The practice gradually took shape. In 1966, teacher Leena Jääskeläinen introduced walking with poles into her physical education classes, for lack of large enough gyms. In 1979, coach Mauri Repo described off-season training sessions in a book that were already very close to today's Nordic walking (BeNordic Spirit). But everything accelerated in 1997. Marko Kantaneva, a young teacher at the Finnish Sports Institute of Vierumäki, published his method under the name Sauvakävely. The same year, the Exel company developed the first dedicated poles, shorter and fitted with a tip different from that of cross-country skiing, and its marketing department coined the name Nordic Walking (Wikipédia, Nordicoach, Nordic Môle).

The most telling detail is an anecdote. Still in 1997, for lack of snow, the Finnish ski federation organised the very first Nordic walking competition as a replacement for a skiing event (Wikipédia, Lilas Randonnées). In other words, competitive Nordic walking was literally born in place of a ski race. In 2000, the INWA was founded to carry the discipline internationally. In France, the French Athletics Federation supported it from the start and obtained ministerial delegation in 2009, entrusting it with training, supervision and competition rules (Wikipédia).

Keep this thread in mind: at every stage, cross-country skiing is the matrix. The movement of walking with poles initially sought to imitate the skier's push.

Double poling, a movement of arms and core

Before going further, let us set the definition. Double poling consists of pushing on both poles simultaneously, without alternating the arms and without using the opposing leg. The upper body tips forward, the trunk and abdominals contract and drop onto the poles, then the arms extend and finish the push. The force therefore comes from the core and the front chain, much more than from the shoulders alone (Skimco).

In Nordic walking, this simultaneous push comes in rhythms. Jean-Pierre Guilloteau, a state-qualified mountain leader and tester of the MØNARC Arcs de Marche, describes it in his book in two forms: the two-beat simultaneous push, which he calls the pas de deux, and the three-beat simultaneous push, the pas de trois. A way of recalling that this movement has its grammar, its variants and its place in learning, well beyond the sole question of competition.

In cross-country skiing, this movement has had a spectacular trajectory. Long confined to flat sections, it ended up dominating entire races. In 2016, the manufacturer Fischer launched the first ski designed solely for double poling, built never to take a single alternating stride (Glisshop). On the international circuit, champions win classic races on arm strength alone: Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby won the Toblach 15 km entirely by double poling (La Presse).

This rise triggered a real controversy among skiers, which resonates strangely with the Nordic walking one. The question was simple: was the classic alternating stride, the very origin of cross-country skiing, going to disappear from competition? Opinions split. France's Maurice Manificat defended double poling as a legitimate evolution, recalling that when skating appeared, rules were set and the new technique found its place without killing the old one (La Presse). Conversely, former Swiss skier Daniel Sandoz regretted seeing the classic movement fade and proposed imposing course sections that had to be skied in the alternating style (Ski-Nordique).

That is in fact the path the International Ski Federation chose. Rather than banning double poling, it chose to protect the classic technique by allowing juries to create zones where only the alternating stride is permitted (Nordic Mag). A compromise, and a telling one: even cross-country skiing, the cradle of double poling, judged it necessary to defend its historic movement.

Keep that point in mind, because it returns at the heart of the Nordic walking debate.

Why does double poling have no place in competition?

On the Nordic walking side, let us be precise. The FFA's Competitive Nordic Walking rulebook contains no line stating in black and white "double poling forbidden". The exclusion comes from elsewhere, from a more fundamental rule that defines the very nature of the movement in this specific setting.

The federal text states that Nordic walking consists of propelling the body with all four limbs, exerting a push on the ground at the pole's impact, the tip staying on the ground until the end of the movement. Above all, it imposes two permanent conditions (FFA, MNC rulebook):

• At every moment, the walker must keep one foot and one pole in contact with the ground.
• Arm and leg must always be in opposition, as in natural walking.

These two requirements are enough to rule out double poling. Pushing on both poles at the same time, without an opposing leg, mechanically breaks the imposed alternation. The rulebook adds other safeguards in the same spirit: running is forbidden, the gliding step is penalised, the hand and elbow of the attacking arm must pass in front of the chest and then behind the hip to guarantee amplitude, and body alignment is checked (G2 Athlé, FFA).

The philosophy is clear. Nordic walking competition wants to reward a walk, that is, an alternating movement, opposite leg and arm, and not a propulsion driven by the upper body alone. The alternating movement is set as the identity of the discipline. It is what judges assess, through two families of faults, one on the push, the other on alignment (Pratique Marche Nordique).

Incidentally, this rulebook is anything but frozen. In 2023, some sixty competitors signed an open letter to have it evolve, judging certain faults too hard to assess with the naked eye in the heat of a race. The federation removed the criterion of the exact pole-plant zone to simplify judging (Pratique Marche Nordique). Proof that the definition of good form is discussed, tested and readjusted continuously.

The arguments of those who find the exclusion a pity

On specialist forums, experienced practitioners have not quite made peace with it. Their first argument is historical and hard to dismiss: Nordic walking descends from cross-country skiing, where double poling is a basic technique that became dominant. Banning from competition a movement so central in the mother discipline looks, in their eyes, like nonsense (Je Marche Nordique).

The second argument is physical. On steep climbs, beyond a certain gradient, double poling proves less punishing than the alternating push, because it spreads the effort over the trunk rather than concentrating it on one shoulder after the other. On severe gradients, many walkers return to it spontaneously, like the skiers before them (Je Marche Nordique).

The third argument is pedagogical, and perhaps the most interesting. Double poling forces you to work on opening and closing the hand, and on the long push backwards, without having to manage the left-right coordination that blocks so many beginners at the start. Used as a drill, it helps you feel what really pushing on a pole means (Je Marche Nordique).

There remains the efficiency argument. The laboratories that study cross-country skiing, such as Hoffman's team in Wisconsin, have measured that double poling is very economical in energy terms. The movement is so inexpensive that it inspired an entire gym machine, the SkiErg, now prized in general physical preparation (Decathlon, AMSF Ski). Hard, in these conditions, to present double poling as a poor or anecdotal movement.

The arguments of those who defend the rule

On the other side, the defence of the rule also stands firm, and it starts with a question of identity. Nordic walking is a walk. Its founding movement, the one that distinguishes it from a mere stroll with poles as from an arm workout on the spot, is natural alternation, opposite arm and leg. Allowing double poling in competition would turn the discipline into something else, closer to a moving SkiErg than to a walk. The federation chose to protect what makes the practice singular.

Then comes the readability of judging. An event must be judgeable with the naked eye, at real speed, by numerous judges spread around the loop. A single, codified, alternating movement is easier to check than a free mix of techniques. The recent simplification of the rulebook, motivated precisely by the difficulty of judging certain faults in a race, shows how much this practical constraint weighs (Pratique Marche Nordique).

Finally, the cross-country skiing example turns here in favour of the rule. Faced with the same tension, skiing did not open the door wide to double poling. On the contrary, it created zones reserved for the alternating stride to preserve its historic technique (Nordic Mag). If the discipline that invented double poling feels the need to protect its classic movement, one understands that a young discipline like Nordic walking should want to defend its own.

What physiology says, without settling it

The numbers do not settle the debate, but they shed light on it. Work on cross-country skiing shows that double poling is efficient, while engaging a smaller muscle mass, centred on the arms and trunk. As a result, maximal oxygen consumption is around twenty percent lower than in an effort that also involves the legs, and the body works at a higher percentage of its maximum, which tires it faster over time.

Alternating walking, for its part, engages the upper and lower body continuously. It is this overall engagement that feeds the famous argument of nine tenths of the musculature involved and an energy expenditure higher than ordinary walking. The two movements therefore do not pursue the same goal. One seeks powerful, economical propulsion on firm ground, the other the complete, sustainable engagement of the body. Neither is the truth against the other.

And what about leisure Nordic walking?

One point deserves emphasis, because it takes the drama out of the subject. This whole discussion only concerns the competitive setting. In leisure sessions, on courses, in training, nothing forbids double poling. Many instructors happily use it, on climbs or as a sensation drill, before returning to the alternating movement on the flat. The strict rule applies only to judged events. For the vast majority of practitioners, who walk for fitness and pleasure, the two movements coexist without difficulty.

Jean-Pierre sums up the idea well. For him, what matters above all in Nordic walking is to work all four limbs, and he clearly distinguishes competitive Nordic walking, with its framework and judging constraints, from Nordic walking for pleasure, where you can freely explore the pas de deux and the pas de trois according to the terrain and the mood of the day. Two complementary worlds, serving different goals, with no need to set them against each other.

The MØNARC view

At MØNARC, it is not our role to settle this debate, and we do not wish to. Double poling has its logic, inherited from cross-country skiing. The alternating movement has its own, deeply rooted in the identity of Nordic walking. Both deserve respect, in competition as on a Sunday outing.

What concerns us sits upstream of that question. Whatever technique you choose, what counts first is the quality of the push and the pleasure of the movement. That is where our Arcs de Marche come in. Their curve favours a push directed forwards and a grip that respects the natural axis of the wrist, with a booster effect at the moment of the plant. The idea was never to reinvent Nordic walking or to impose one school against another. It is to help everyone practise more easily, more cleanly and with more pleasure, whether they push in alternation or enjoy, outside competition, a few double-poling strokes up a hill.

A healthy debate for a young discipline

That Nordic walking is still discussing its permitted movements is nothing to worry about. It is even the sign of a living practice, attentive to its roots while watching what happens with its big sister, cross-country skiing. The border between tradition and evolution will no doubt shift again, with rulebooks, competitors and judges. In the meantime, the finest movement remains the one that makes you want to pick up the poles again tomorrow.

And you, on climbs, do you ever switch to double poling? Tell us in the comments, we are curious about your sensations.

And for the pleasure of it, here is that double poling, on cross-country skis:

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Sources

• Wikipédia, Marche nordique: origin, sauvakävely, Kantaneva, first competition 1997, INWA, FFA delegation 2009.
• BeNordic Spirit, La Marche Nordique: Leena Jääskeläinen, Mauri Repo, Finnish development.
• Nordicoach, Définition et historique de la marche nordique: Exel poles, Suomen Latu.
• Nordic Môle, L'histoire de la marche nordique: genesis of the name Nordic Walking.
• Marche-nordique.net, Historique: summer training of skiers from the 1930s.
• Lilas Randonnées, La marche nordique, oui mais c'est quoi: first competition to make up for the lack of snow.
• Glisshop, Technique classique de ski de fond: definition of double poling, Fischer ski 2016.
• La Presse, Le style classique menacé: controversy, Sundby in Toblach, Maurice Manificat's position.
• Ski-Nordique.net, Faut-il interdire la double poussée: Daniel Sandoz's position, alternating-only zones.
• Nordic Mag, Style classique, double poussée, ce qu'a décidé la FIS: zones reserved for the alternating stride.
• Skimco, Technique ski classique: mechanics of double poling, role of the core.
• AMSF Ski, Recherche sur le ski de fond: Hoffman's work, efficiency and fatigue of double poling.
• Decathlon, Bienfaits du SkiErg: machine simulating double poling.
• FFA, Règlement de la Marche Nordique Compétition: arm-leg opposition, foot and pole contact, push and alignment faults.
• G2 Athlé, Marche Nordique Compétition: reminder of the technical rules.
• Pratique Marche Nordique, Le nouveau règlement adopté and Un règlement simplifié à l'étude: competitors' open letter, evolution of judged faults.
• Je Marche Nordique (forum), Marche nordique et montée: double poling on climbs, pedagogical value, debate on the competition ban.
• Jean-Pierre Guilloteau, state-qualified mountain leader and MØNARC ambassador: terminology of the pas de deux and pas de trois, distinction between competitive and leisure Nordic walking (conversation and book).