It is often said that walking “clears your head”. It sounds like a saying, but scientists have actually looked into it, also for Nordic Walking. What did they find? Something yes, something no, and that is exactly what is interesting.
What the 2025 meta-analysis found
The authors pooled 8 studies from 2014 to 2024 with 327 participants, average age about 71.
- Executive functions, that is planning, switching attention and controlling your own behaviour, improved. The effect was large (Hedges’ g = 0.89), but the confidence interval is wide (0.27 to 1.50).
- Overall cognitive function, memory, attention, information processing and perception did not demonstrably change.
- The improvement was more marked in older people with health problems and when compared with an inactive group.
- The longer the intervention lasted, the greater the effect.
Executive functions are what you need when you plan your day, switch between tasks and keep your attention on what you are doing. It is a kind of “control room” of the head, and that is exactly what walking with poles seems, according to the studies, to have nudged a little.
How to read it
Eight small studies are few. The wide interval means that the true effect may be much smaller, but also larger, than the number 0.89 shows. The authors themselves write that the effectiveness must be confirmed by further studies. It is interesting that the effect grew with the length of the programme: two weeks of walking are not enough, it pays to stick with it.
What we do not know yet
We do not know whether it is thanks to the poles or simply to regular walking outdoors in company. The studies do not distinguish. All that can reasonably be said is that people who walked regularly with poles did better after the programme in planning and switching attention than the inactive ones.
So: does it help thinking? A little and only in something, and we know nothing more for now. But as a reason to go outside regularly, that is enough.
Have you noticed that you decide or plan better after a walk? Tell us in the forum.
It is possible that it is precisely the coordination of arms and legs, keeping the rhythm and looking at the path ahead that gives the head work to do. The studies do not verify that, though, so it is a hypothesis, not a finding. You can try it yourself: notice how you concentrate on the movement when walking with poles, and whether after the walk you feel different than after an ordinary stroll.
What to take away
The review does not say Nordic Walking does not help thinking; it says only that for most abilities there is as yet nothing to measure. But if you enjoy walking outdoors, that is a good reason for your head to do well too, even if no study captures it.
Have you ever noticed that you think better after a walk? Tell us whether you feel it too, and for which kind of work it helps you most.
Text: Kompas.
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