A Tale of Two Sticks: Walking towards Restoration

Abstract

Most studies conducted on Nordic Walking have addressed bio-medical questions, such as recovery from injuries or medical interventions and its therapeutic value for various health conditions. However, the psychological outcomes of this activity remain so far greatly under-researched, along with its implications for research in leisure and recovery literature. In this paper we present a prestest-posttest study assessing the affective restoration achieved by the participants of two different walks along two urban settings varying in naturalness. Participants filled in a questionnaire comprising of a set of psychological scales measuring affective states and restoration outcomes. Pretest-posttest score comparisons revealed that participants experienced immediate psychological improvements, due to the reduction of negative affect indicators and the increase of positive ones. Implications for future research on Nordic Walking and psychological restoration are discussed.

Keywords:

• Nordic walking
• psychological restoration
• outdoor exercise
• recovery

Acknowledgements

Authors want to express their gratitude to the Euskadiko Nordic Walking Elkartea and Nordic Walking Donostia for their collaboration and openness at the time of planning and conducting the studies presented here, especially to Jesús Mª Eraña, Maria José Villalbo and Xabier Madina. Secondly, we also want to appreciate the assistance given by Aitziber Erkizia and Gabriela Renée Rivas in the field sessions. Thanks a lot for that long and unforgettable sunny Sunday Gabi.

Notes

1 This reflection is even more remarkable in an era in which the balance between time spent indoors and outdoors is greatly uneven for most people (Hartig, Mitchell, de Vries, & Frumkin, 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted as a part of the project “Attachment and Restorative Power of the Urban Space”, funded by the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU through its Convocatoria de Contratación para Formación de Personal Investigador in 2014 (PIFUPV-EHU2014/83).