Nordic Walking: The Best Apps and GPS Watches for Making Progress
Technology has invited itself onto the trails. GPS watches, activity-tracking apps, real-time audio coaching: digital tools can turn a Nordic walking outing into a structured, measured session. Provided you know which to choose and how to use them.
The reference apps for Nordic walking
Strava has become the universal reference for outdoor sports tracking. It records your routes by GPS, calculates your speed, elevation gain and distance, and lets you share your outings with an active community. The "segments" feature lets you compare yourself with other practitioners on specific stretches. Its asset: the global heatmap of the most-travelled trails for discovering new routes.
Komoot is the most precise hiking and Nordic walking planning tool on the European market. It offers route recommendations suited to your level, with detailed elevation profiles, surface types and points of interest. Ideal for preparing long outings or exploring new territory.
Garmin Connect and Polar Flow are the companion apps of the sports watches of the same names. They analyse your physiological data in depth: heart-rate variability, recovery state, training load, estimated VO2max. Indispensable for regular practitioners who want to manage their long-term progression.
Wikiloc offers a community database of GPS tracks, perfect for finding Nordic walking routes validated by local practitioners. The French-speaking community there is very active.
Which GPS watches for Nordic walking?
The outdoor GPS watch market has exploded in recent years. Here are the main categories:
- Garmin Forerunner / Instinct / Fenix: the GPS reference for serious athletes. Impeccable GPS accuracy, wrist heart-rate tracking, multi-day battery life, dedicated Nordic walking activity profiles on some models
- Polar Ignite / Grit X: an excellent alternative with some of the most precise recovery tracking on the market (Nightly Recharge, Sleep Plus Stages)
- Suunto 9 / Race: robust, precise, with built-in mapping on premium models. Appreciated by ultra-endurance practitioners
- Apple Watch Series / Ultra: very versatile for daily life, but with limited battery life on long outings and fewer features specific to sporty walking
- Samsung Galaxy Watch: good versatility, but the sports ecosystem remains less developed than Garmin or Polar
The metrics to watch in Nordic walking
Not all GPS watches measure the same data. For Nordic walking, the most useful indicators are:
- Heart rate: to stay in the right intensity zone (60-75% of max HR for base endurance)
- Cadence (steps per minute): a cadence of 100-120 steps/minute is typical of good, dynamic Nordic walking
- Pace (km/h): a long-term progression indicator
- Elevation gain: essential for calibrating effort on mountain outings
- Active vs total time: to distinguish active walking phases from breaks
Combining technology and pleasure
One last piece of advice: do not let technology take over from the pleasure of walking. Data are progression tools, not commands. Some of the finest Nordic walking outings happen without a watch, listening to your sensations — as recommended by Jean-Pierre Guilloteau, MØNARC® ambassador and mountain guide in the Vercors for many years.
What technology will never measure: the sensation of propulsion of the MØNARC Arcs de Marche® from the very first kilometres. That one, you feel.