ulkoliikunta's blog

Testdrivers showing the way in Finnish traffic safety

Finland’s and one of world’s leading tire manufacturer NokianTyres has a new innovative approach to giving back to the community and being concerned about the bigger picture in their category. Among other things, they have created a Hakkapeliitta testdrivers program where everyday people from around the country are reporting and blogging about their lives and especially things that matter in the traffic.

These people are sharing their thoughts about traffic, driving tips, weather conditions and anything that might come to their minds when driving to work or on holiday in various places. The program, which had it’s first call for applications in the fall of 2011, received lots of contacts from citizens from all walks of life and the first test drivers with Hakkapeliitta winter tyres installed in their cars, were driving about in October.

There were thousands of application in Finland alone and that’s why NokianTyres decided to renew the program and invite people for another round. And the people now are reporting their conversations and thoughts and incidents by texts, video or pictures, whichever is the most comfortable way of telling their point of view about safety in traffic in real life.

Along with having their own blog page, the test drivers use the traffic map application with their smart phones. The idea behind the traffic map is that the citizens – not just the test drivers – can mark accidents, incidents, funny things, traffic jams, weather condition information, road work or just the location of a gas station for example to a GPS map and this information is instantly shared with everyone using the application. This way the users are creating a real time, dynamic map of things to consider in traffic in their country and thus making a contribution to the greater traffic safety and well being of drivers everywhere.

While the test drivers are now car specialists or traffic teachers, just plain everyday people, they provide a living commentary and a helpful guidance to the issues concerning drivers and driving culture in Finland. One hopes, that this kind of leading by example attitude would spread around the world and make the roads a little bit safer for everyone.

Winter is here – are you ready?

One of my friends recently confided in me and told that he’s actually afraid of the winter. Not because of the cold but because of the fact that he might have to drive during harsh winter conditions. This lead me to think about the winter driving safety issues, is it really that difficult if you know just few tricks and make sure your car is reasonable equipped for various kinds of weather conditions as well as events out of your control such as accidents or getting lost?

Another friend just visited Finland and while driving he bumped into a special crew traveling on the roads called Team Hakka. They are some kind of superheroes of the road, fighting for the safer traffic and happier life in general. They might come to help you if you are stuck in a pile of snow or just cut down a storm-battered tree which might cause accidents. Sometimes they just clean the parked cars from the snow or lend a hand by pushing someone up the icy hill. So if someone sees a problem somewhere on the road anywhere in the Nordic countries, anyone can send them assignments to Hakkapedia website where they could be of assistance and it’s provided free by the Finnish tiremakerNokiantyres. They are sort of masked crusaders fighting for the good, except that they don’t wear masks.

So here are few of the things what my friend learned from them. These are good to bear in mind when the winter is upon us.

You should keep light touch of the car controls. Smooth operation is the key to keeping control in slippery situations. Nervousness can lead to a hard clench of the steering wheel, which can result in loss of control. Another way of preventing hazardous situations is slowing down when you have snow conditions.

You should also learn how to recover from skids. When braking on a slippery road, it’s all too easy to “lock up” your wheels by stepping on the brakes a little too hard. If you start to skid, steer the vehicle gently in the direction you want the front of your vehicle to go and don’t touch your brakes. This used to be called “turning into the skid,” but tests have shown that drivers often misinterpret these words in real-life situations.

And it goes without saying that during winter keeping your tires in good condition and properly inflated is essential. Cold weather reduces tire pressure, so check and adjust frequently. Tire tread depth should be at least 1/8-inch, and good snow tires with lugs will outperform just about any all-weather tire on the market.

Making a sound choice when choosing tires

Tires are obviously one the of most important elements when it comes to car parts, because they affect safety, fuel economy and handling of the car. There are many different types of tires for various uses, climates and weather conditions. One of my favourites is Hakka summer tires from Nokian, which suit well for my fast driving and sporty cars.

But there’s one facet to the choosing tires dilemma that hasn’t emerged until recently. People have started to increasingly pay attention to the noise the tires make and especially in Europe and Asia, the consumers are choosing tires which reduce noise as well as giving a good grip on to the road surface. This is due to the new demands mandated by the European and Asian nations which want to reduce noise pollution especially in busy city streets.

The difference in sound between a quiet tire on a car versus a noisy tire on a pickup truck can easily be 10 decibels, or roughly double the noise, and that does not include the increased engine and exhaust noise of the bigger vehicle. It is one reason why noise is becoming a factor even in residential neighborhoods without high traffic volumes.

Tire acoustics are in fact a complex field of study which is getting attention from tire manufacturers and majority of consumers want quieter tires – this means quieter both inside the car as well as what comes to producing noise to outside community.

When driving low speeds, the engine and exhaust system are the main sources of noise but at about 56 km/h noise is a significant factor. And at highway speeds, the tires create about 60% of the noise a typical car makes.

But one of most astounding news is that, there has emerged a new type of consumer, who wants to have noisier tires. These people look for a very stylized tires with a off-road feel. Their reason for getting such tires is a good off-road traction. However, noisy doesn’t automatically mean good traction or good tire even, it could mean just plain bad engineering in treads and no consideration of tire acoustics. Safety should be the number one factor when choosing your tires, not sounds or looks. So be careful when choosing, after all, it’s better to make a sound choice.

Outdoor sports facilities in Finland

Outdoor fitness (In Finnish=ulkoliikunta) and exercise are good ways to keep up the good health, to keep the mind active and lively and unload stress and tension. In Finland, country famous of its´ forests and lakes, outdoor activity facilities are excellent, in the countryside as well as in the cities.

There is in surroundings of almost every bigger city several golf courses, football fields, tennis courts and skating places. For example city of Helsinki offers vast outdoor activity areas around the surrounding forest areas and the several parks are located in the heart of Helsinki. Possibilities are multiple for jogging, outdoor gymnastics, Nordic walking, orienteering, cycling and roller skating. In winter time ice skating fields are freezed for the use for skaters.

There isn´t much of beaches in Finland, the Kalajoki and Hanko being probably to most famous ones. The season for spending time at the seaside beach is quite short. Big outdoor swimming pool facilities offer an extension to swimming season with their attached sauna and shower facilities. For example in Helsinki there is at least two of these, open from quite early spring until the first days of autumn.

For hiking there are good areas even near the capital. Large green forest areas, such as Nuuksio or Luukki, are only an hour car drive away from the center of Helsinki. And the more north you go, the more you will find empty forests and uninhabited woods, since the country is large and the habitation centered mostly in to the south. National parks and the nature of Lapland offer quiet and untouched nature for a prepared wanderer even for weeks.

Regular sports prevent symptoms of ageing

Aging affects body in many ways and for example the physical capacity weakens in later years. Muscels start to loose their strength and joints feel more stiff. All kinds of symptoms of the old age can be doubled by for example diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, usually breaking out in the older age.

The weakening of the physical abilities can be however prevented and postponed by the active physical exercise and regular fitness and keeping the lifestyle generally healthy. Regular exercise can extend the days and years of good health with well functioning body and keeps the mind as well fit and active, which in return affects the bodily health. The best way would be to start regular exercise as early in the age as possible. Having the lifestyle that includes regular fitness is like a life insurance, but its´s not, however, never too late start either. Senior fitness (In Finnish=senioriliikunta) can offer a possibility to start regular exercise.

Senior age is no obstacle for starting to fill the schedule with regular sports, even if you haven't have any habit of doing regular physical exercise. Weekly classes don't take much time in the end, even two hours per week and added walks to the grocery or cycling to pay a visit for a friend instead of taking a car every now and then makes a difference and will keep your body active. The exercise doesen´t need to be exhausting one, especially if there is no previous practice of doing exercise or there has been long time since doing any sports. Even an half an hour of a brisk walk every couple of day is a good start. Outdoor fitness areas offer also a relaxed mode of diverse gymnastics

Ideology of Parkour

Parkour is a sports combining acrobatics and fast movement, aiming at moving trough urban spaces as smoothly and quickly as possible. It was developed in suburbias of city of Paris by David Belle and Sebastian Foucan. Eventually the sport was spread all over the world and was featured for example in the James Bond movie Casino Royale.

The founding fathers of Parkour emphasized the functionality of the movement and the importance to be free from the barriers of the urban surroundings. This is extended as well to concern the urban social relationships, into the breaking the social barriers between people and building relationships across economical and social boundaries. Parkour was later on developed and evolved and more acrobatic motions were incorporated. After the sport entered Great Britain, it started to be called freerun. Freerun and Parkour are similar in their outlook and ideology, freerun incorporating more features from for example breakdance.

Parkour as a sport and as a way of thinking and comprehending the urban space has a certain anarchistic tone in it. Refusing to use the routes and spaces pointed for most of us to use to move between places actually questions the authority of the official town planning and in this sense the whole system of the urban way of arranging the society. Parkour draws as well from the idea of self-improvement and self-awareness, aiming at fluidity, the ability to change and transform smoothly. Self discipline plays a big role when crossing over ones limitations and mental obstacles through physical training. Parkour is a way of having control over your body and control over your environment.

Play is good for everyone, regardless of age

Exercise doesn’t have to be boring. For people who don’t actively and regularly pursue sports or try to stay fit, doing exercises may seem like a tedious task. But it shouldn’t be. Everyone should enjoy the fitness the way they like and the way, which suits their own lifestyle and pace. So whether it’s senior sport (in Finnish: senioriliikunta), youngster sports or children’s play at a playground, everyone can find a suitable way of staying in better shape and feeling better.

Finnish Lappset initiated a research and development project with the funding from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. It’s called Dynamic Garden and it intends to produce a fitness and outdoor exercise park, available for all, suitable for all ages and enhanced with technology.

The Dynamic Garden outdoor exercise park will be designed to encourage and motivate persons interested in exercise and exercise enthusiasts to play, exercise, communicate and have fun, and through this improving the participant’s healthy wellbeing.

Today’s busy lifestyle means that people no longer have the time to sufficiently take care of their wellbeing and even the time a family has to spend together is shrinking.

Lappset has a firm belief that this will change and the value bestowed on outdoor pursuits, playing and spending time together will experience a renaissance.

As the population is aging it is important for public health reasons to keep senior citizens active. By developing balance and improved motor skills, it is for instance possible to help prevent falling accidents. Of course play and the joy of exercise will also fend off depression and apathy. Many senior people feel younger again when they play with their grandchildren.

Lappset explored the everyday lives of senior citizens and children in daycare in a study conducted in the mid-2000s. This multi-discipline project generated ideas that eventually developed into the Senior Sport concept.

The purpose of the Senior Sport outdoor fitness equipment is to facilitate and enrich the everyday lives of senior citizens through outdoor exercise and the physical fitness and good feeling that this produces. The playful exercises designed for the elderly improve their capacity to cope with everyday tasks. The simple routines are intended to maintain mobility and coordination, and outdoor pursuits together with other people improve mental wellbeing. Senior citizens with good mobility and fitness hurt themselves less often, saving on medical costs, and they can function better in their everyday lives.

Parkour – easy to get started, hard to let go

Parkour is the new rage in urban experiences. It may seem an underground movement or a risk-taking extreme sport but it’s neither. In fact it’s a non-competitive discipline originating in France, encompassing a set of principles combined with a way of moving within your environment and overcoming obstacles of any kind, be they physical or mental.

The physical aspect of Parkour involves practical movement techniques guided by the notions of escape and reach. For example, parkour teaches you ways to move that can be used to gain ground on a pursuer during an escape.

Parkour methods involve running, crawling, jumping, climbing, and other methods of catching yourself, grabbing and hanging, rolling and balancing, applied to all environments both urban and natural. The parkour practitioner aims to become highly proficient in all the above methods so they can be used in an emergency situation. There are no equipment needed to start, all you need is comfortable pair of shoes with good grip, t-shirt and loose pants.

A Parkour practitioner is defined not by the way they move, but rather the application of movement with regards to the philosophy and purpose of parkour.

Parkour indeed is a sport - or rather a movement, tightly connected with philosophy. The deep thinking behind parkour is that all the moves are linked to each other so that the practioner can perform various moves like a dancer or jazz musician, without reflection and coming intuitively, from the muscle memory and the creativeness of the person. The parkour practitioner wants to be so fluent in his moves that he can cross any terrain without compromise - as if there were no obstacles.

Parkour training is a very versatile form of outdoor sports as you don’t have to be an athlete to start and you can practice parkour in many different ways – according your own level and environment. Parkour is about repetition and practise, making yourself better little by little. That’s why it may be hard to let go, the addiction comes from trying to push yourself just bit more – not trying to win someone else.

There are even specialized outdoor parkour equipment makers, such as Lappset who have produced safe and multi-use equipment, which can be installed in parks or playgrounds for parkour training purposes.

Senior fitness - four things you need to keep in mind

It’s a proven fact that seniors benefit from regular exercise and need it as much as all the younger age groups. Probably given the deteriorating health and simple old age, for them it’s even more important than others.

Senior fitness (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) doesn’t have to be dreadful or arduous chore, all the senior citizens need to remember is four basic pillars to maintain their physical and mental health – yes, it encompasses both as the physical well-being is deeply linked to mental fitness and happiness.

So, what are the four pillars? They are Strength training, Cardiovascular training, Balance training and Flexibility training.

The first one, strength training builds muscles by repetitive motion using weights or external resistance and it prevents you from losing bone mass as well as improves balance. These are important when they want to stay active and prevent the risk of falling. Strength training’s aim is not to get great muscular body but to make everyday activities easier, opening a jar or getting out of car for example.

Next up is cardiovascular training, which is done by using large muscle groups in repeated motion over a longer period of time. The point of these exercises is to increase your body’s ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and get your heart pumping. This way you get endurance for climbing up the stairs, cleaning the house or just walking the shop.

Two last pillars senior sports are balance and flexibility training. Balance is important to avoid to nasty falls, which for elders can be very risky. Along with the before mentioned exercises it’s necessary to maintain your posture and walk and move in a balanced way. Better balance means better quality in walking and also confidence with balance.

Flexibility exercises challenge the joint’s ability to move which can be done through stationary stretching or by ballistic stretching which means moving and bouncing. The importance of these exercises is to help your body stay limber and increase your range of movement when reaching, bending or playing with children.

Eureka Network

Eureka is a network of 39 member countries aiming to promote market oriented research and innovation by supporting for example small companies, large industries or universities, and contributing this way into European economical development and the prospering and internationalization of European enterprises and research agents.

In Finland Eureka network is represented by Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. Companies and other organizations introduces new products and services through Eureka projects, in which the new innovations are developed and commercialized and launched for the markets. The network was founded in 1985.

Rovaniemi based Lappset group started in collaboration with Tekes a large scale Eureka research and development project called Dynamic Garden, in which the purpose was to create a quality designed and technologically enhanced playground and fitness areas for all age groups. For example senior sport (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) has been under heavy development during the past years. According to plan the aim is to create a concept which combines a product and a service. The project lasted three years. Lappset has in their product line up for example Digiplay concept mobile playground equipment, which combine mobile gaming and outdoor play and this way attracts for example children to outdoor play instead of staying indoor behind the computer screen.

Lappset was founded in 1970´s and has since produced quality playground equipments. According to vision of the company it aims to produce and develop environmentally sustainable design methods for play and playground equipment. The company has expanded the traditional concept of play, and their playground environments feature innovative design and combine also new technologies into traditional playground environments.