Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon,

and I make podcasts for the BBC. I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. But when I started

commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts. I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right

mixture of sounds could take you into a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to

give it a go myself, which to cut a long story short led to a BBC training scheme and a whole

new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories

that make you go wow like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC

sounds. This is a BBC Radio 4 download. You're listening to me, Claire Balding with another

edition of Ramblings. It's a grey and drizzly day in Nottinghamshire, just on the outskirts

of Nottingham, near a village called Beeston in Bramkut Hills

Park and I've come here to do something that I've never done before which is Nordic Walking.

And Nordic Walking was first invented by cross-country skiers in the 1930s in the off season to keep

themselves fish and to keep them using all the muscles they would for Lang Lang Lathing. They

decided to do the cross-country skiing without the skis. And now it's taken off. And here we are in 2015,

and it's a phenomenon. It is the fitness fad of our times, maybe more than a fad. Catherine

Hughes, who's a British Nordic walking instructor, will tell us more about it. But first, I've got

to get fitted for my poles

take hold of the pole let's see if this fits you let's just hold a handle yeah oh it's got a proper

wrist strap and into the straps and through the hole that is like that's like a skiing pole

more than a very similar okay. Does that look alright?

Does that feel good?

Yeah, it's really light.

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