It’s an activity that’s meant to be great for people with bad knees and other injuries that mean they’re finding it harder to walk, which was what initially attracted me to it. However, the idea that it’s primarily a good activity for rehabilitation is one that Lynne is keen to correct.
‘Nordic walking is great for anyone, young or old, fit or not so active,’ she tells me and my husband, Pete (the one with the dodgy knees). ‘It began in Finland as a summertime activity, so that cross-country skiers could continue their training. You’ll see five-year-olds walking with poles, and it’s now huge in lots of countries, including Germany and Spain. People take it really seriously and there are lots of competitions, or you can just do it for fun.’
Lynne grew up in Ontario, Canada, and moved to the UK nearly 40 years ago, via time spent living in the Virgin Islands, California and working on yachts. Given her love of the outdoors, I ask why she ultimately chose England over Canada. ‘People ask that all the time, but it snows there, and I don’t do cold.’
Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)
Her early travels made her passionate about grabbing life’s opportunities. ‘Anyone who’s thinking of travelling should just go,’ she says. ‘I’m always telling young people this.’ When she’s not running classes (which operate between the Isle of Purbeck and the New Forest) she still travels extensively. Last year she spent three months in Costa Rica, working as a volunteer for Raleigh International.
Her first career in the UK was as an estate agent, a role which she’s found has similarities with her current work. ‘When people contact me about walking, I offer them a taster session, which is rather like going to someone’s house to give an evaluation,’ she says. ‘Both jobs involve lots of explanations, but both also require people to buy into you as a person.’
I suspect that, with her warmth and excellent sense of humour, the latter isn’t hard to achieve. ‘It’s the Canadian accent,’ she laughs. ‘It’s a good place to be from, although people often think I’m Scottish, so I guess that’s a good place to be from too.’
At the start of our taster, she hands us a couple of poles each. They look like a lighter, slightly thinner version of normal walking poles, just with detachable straps. After she’s adjusted them, so that our hands sit slightly lower than our elbows, her brief introduction includes information on why Nordic Walking is so good for you.
Jess Morency and Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)
‘It’s been scientifically proven that it teaches you to walk as you should,’ Lynne explains. ‘You just need to do a natural arm swing to the opposing leg and use the straps on your poles to push through each step with the heel of your hand, not gripping the actual pole.
‘Done correctly, you’re going to engage the back of the arms, the triceps, the back of the shoulders and then on down the back. So you’ve got all these muscles engaging; bringing everything in, pushing through and taking pressure off the knee and hip joints while activating your upper body and core.’
I’ve tried Nordic walking once before, but the best tip Lynne gives, which immediately makes a big difference to my technique, is to remove my top finger from my pole handle grip. ‘If you choose to point it forward, we call that the James, or Jane Bond,’ she says. ‘It’s important as it helps you position your poles better, giving you more flexibility to push the movement through.’
I say that I’m surprised I wasn’t shown this previously. ‘Every instructor will teach slightly differently,’ she says. ‘I’ve trained with two different organisations [Nordic Walking UK and British Nordic Walking] and then walked with walking instructors in Spain. I think that over the 13 years I’ve been teaching, I’ve developed a way of instructing people that works best for both me and them.’
If people enjoy the taster, she recommends they do three more one-hour sessions. In the first she concentrates on cementing the strap technique, in the second it’s all about walking up (and down) hills. She shows us how she teaches the latter and I suggest she looks a bit like a robot. ‘That’s because I don’t have a hill!’ The final session involves simply going for a walk. ‘I try to just make it natural,’ she says. ‘We’ll go to a nice place and walk and talk and, you know, try not to even think about technique.’
These days, a big part of Lynne’s business is taking clients on guided walks. ‘Growing up, I never thought I’d be someone who’d be a leader but I’ve discovered that people kind of like to be led.’
Jess Morency and Lynne Martin (Image: Peter Yendell)
Every Sunday evening, she emails details about the following week to her team of walkers. Most are regular events, ranging from a Monday Morning Motivator, which takes place at Knoll Beach in Studland – tides allowing – to a gentle walk in Poole. She also does night walks with torches and one in a forest where a bit of a work-out with elastic bands is included. Clients buy a booklet of 10 walks and hand in a token each time they attend.
Each walk has between eight and 15 people, and ranges between three and six miles. Many of Lynne’s clients have walked with her for years, and during that time she’s seen a lot of strong friendships develop. ‘While I’d love lots of younger people to join in, it’s a brilliant way of getting out and being sociable as you get older,’ she says of her clients, many of whom are women over 60 who have been widowed. ‘I’ve got a lady who regularly walks with me who’s recently turned 82.’
Since 2016, Lynne has also organised annual Nordic walking holidays abroad, which began in Andalusia and have gone on to include trips to Ireland, Scotland, Italy and, next year, Albania. ‘I was really pleased that the trip sold within two days,’ she says. ‘One client was so disappointed, I had to extend the numbers.’
I’m not surprised her trips are popular. She works hard to keep the costs as low as possible (most people share rooms and she hates the idea of a ‘single supplement’) and many of her clients return annually. ‘Wherever we’ve walked has been great, but I particularly love Spain. The scenery, the gastronomy, how wherever we go we’re treated like family, it’s all just brilliant.’
Introduction over, we move onto the forest paths, where Pete and I start practising our walking. It’s not long before I’m trying to stifle my laughter. For some reason, thinking about walking means that my husband suddenly forgets how to do it. Each time he walks, he uses the same leg and arm, meaning that as he tries to self-correct, he starts to wobble. It’s at this point that I see what a brilliant teacher Lynne is. Not only is she calm and kind (while also authoritative), but you can see just how much she wants him to get it. Both of us agree that the session was really good fun, and we’re keen to return for a second.
By the end of the hour, she’s also convinced me of the science behind it. At one point she tells me to walk with the sticks, using the straps to push myself forward, then she tells me to lift them in the air. Immediately I see the benefit.
As we walk back to the carpark, nodding to dog walkers and runners as we go, I ask Lynne if she has a favourite Dorset walk. ‘It’s impossible to say, when we’ve got so much on our doorstep,’ she replies. ‘I like the forest walks, the beach walks. Anywhere you walk on Purbeck, you’re really lucky. It’s like a big outdoor playground where, each time you come, you’re guaranteed to see something wonderful.’.
Learn more at nordicwalkingfit.co.uk
or call Lynne on 07855 869009.
