Nordic Walking technique evaluation with sensorized walking poles

The Nordic walking (NW) is a popular form of physical exercise that involves walking with actively use of a pair of poles. The NW should be performed with a specific technique that includes the alternating and symmetrical use of the sticks on the two sides. Here we describe a sensorized poles system consisting in a specifically developed devices that allow an automatic evaluation of the correctness of the technical execution. The data obtained from the accelerometers embedded in the handle of the poles allow to measure the poles angles during the pushing phase, the cycle frequency, and to compare parameters between two sticks to evaluate between limb symmetry. The ability of the system in identifying and describing the execution errors of the NW technique has been tested on six subjects. The sensorized poles have been proven to be easy to use and able to detect major errors in NW techniques.