People with lung diseases are often afraid of exercise. When you are short of breath, you do not feel like doing anything that might make it worse. Yet exercise is among the things recommended for lung diseases. How does Nordic Walking do?
What the 2025 review found
The authors summarised 13 studies with 514 participants.
- The qualitative summary, that is a description of results without a combined number, suggests a benefit for exercise tolerance, physical activity, fitness, breathlessness, lung function and mood.
- A meta-analysis, that is a combined number, could only be done for the six-minute walk test, from seven studies. The difference against other types of exercise was 4.4 metres, that is practically none. The interval was wide, though: from a result 88.1 metres worse to one 96.9 metres better.
- The authors’ conclusion: the benefits are comparable with other forms of exercise.
Why “equally good” is good news
Nordic Walking is not better than other exercise, but not worse either. Whoever enjoys it can choose it. Exercise that a person enjoys is done for a long time, and that matters most. You do not have to force yourself into something you hate just because it sounded more thorough.
And poles have a practical side: with them you can walk more upright, and that often comes in handy for people who are short of breath. The studies did not measure this, though, we write it only as an observation, not as a finding.
What we do not know yet
The authors point out that studies with carefully set intensity for each person individually are missing. So we do not know how much the results would improve if the load were precisely adapted. Further research must answer that.
Do you walk with poles and have trouble with your lungs? Tell us in the forum how walking is going and what helps.
The six-minute walk test is simple: it measures how many metres a person covers on level ground in six minutes. It is used for other diseases too and is handy for comparison. A difference of 4.4 metres is negligible in this test, and that is why we say there was no difference between Nordic Walking and other exercise in it. The wide interval, though, reminds us that there are too little data for certainty.
The main message is simple: you do not have to fear that you are choosing worse if you choose Nordic Walking. Pick the exercise that does not put you off after the first week, and stay with it.
What to take away
In lung disease Nordic Walking came out as good as other exercise, not better. That is not bad news: it means you can choose the movement you enjoy and will stick with. Keep a pace at which you can still talk.
Did you choose poles because you enjoy them, or have you tried other exercise too? Tell us what suits you best.
Text: Kompas.
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