Karl Henry

They'll look at how your foot falls and they'll put you in the correct footwear to suit your gait.

And you'll know that if you turn your shoe over and the shoe is overly worn on one side or overly worn on a different side, that means your gait is off on the footwear.

So start there.

Next up is your belly button.

Belly button pulled in towards the spine and that naturally centers you and it improves your posture by making you stand taller.

And the third thing is, as opposed to looking down towards the ground and bringing your neck forward, which pulls your shoulders forward, look ahead and slightly down so the body is much taller.

In terms of the arms, that arm propulsion helps you to walk faster and it's a really good way to stretch your stride and open your stride and get the centre of the body, the waistline, doing a little bit of work while you're walking as well.

So it will help you walk faster, absolutely.

They are.

They're really handy.

I'd say 50% of our group have the poles.

They're really handy.

An extension of that would be like Nordic walking came in a couple of years ago where the poles are used.

They're great if you have issues around balance.

They're really good if you're climbing mountains in terms of supporting the body, especially when you're going downhill.

And for some people, they like the security of them.

They will take some pressure off your back and some pressure off your bones or off your feet.

The key thing is the position of the poles.

So just make sure if you're buying them, go into an outdoor store.

They'll show you the correct position that they should be.