Use hiking poles, even on shorter hikes. None of the most experienced and hard-core hikers and backpackers I know ever hike without poles, period. Trekking poles significantly reduce the impact and cumulative fatigue on leg muscles and joints and your lower back, whether going up or down, especially when you’re carrying a load on your back. Poles also reduce your risk of tripping and falling – four legs are better than two.
By the way, many hikers I see don’t use poles properly to maximize their benefits. Here’s how:
- When going uphill or on flat terrain, adjust your poles’ length so that your elbows are bent at 90 degrees when holding the poles upright with their tips touching the ground. With each stride forward, plant the pole in the opposite hand beside or behind your trailing foot, with the pole at an angle, so that you’re pushing off slightly each time you plant a pole. Planting the pole in front of you-as many people do-doesn’t help propel you forward. Over the course of several miles, you’ll notice the difference.
- On sustained downhill stretches, lengthen the poles by five to 10 centimeters, depending on the trail’s steepness, and plant each pole out in front of you (right-hand pole when stepping left foot forward and vice versa) so that the poles take some of your body weight when stepping down. For big steps off ledges and rocks, plant both poles first and lean on them as you step down.
Read more on the benefits of hiking poles here.
47 thoughts on “Use hiking poles”
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Indeed…they are worth their weight in gold. There can be a bit of macho BS surrounding the use of hiking poles. But if you want to keep hiking into your middle to late age then hiking poles will trump any of that…Plus if they are good enough for Reinhold Messner then macho BS about them really carries no weight at all…
Looks like you’re going skiing…
Two uses for the price of one 😉
Dougal Sanderson did you bump into them again?
Nope…
Kathryn Hooton x
Absolutely LOVE my poles! Especially on the downhill – which I despise!
Never hike without them.
Becc Smith
Courtney see, don’t just carry them
Sean Limpens feeling it now 7 years later with knee, back and butt muscle spasms.
Sean Limpens just likes a big nob in his hands
Andrew Johnson looking forward to the next article: Use umbrellas – even in the jungle
Sean Limpens
Abracadabra witchicaboola bippity boppity boo! Pull em together and what have you got..
OK this is getting way too intellectual for me!
Al Mountbatten
How much further erosion of paths and tracks take place though?
Shannon Lingard
Suzi White better invest in some
Shannon Lingard I have been thinking that too. Xx
I wasn’t convinced of their value. Then my husband and I hiked the Thorsborne trail and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated them! Would never be without them now.
F
Love my poles. Wouldn’t hike without them. 🙂
Phu Nguyen
Ive only hiked once with them, i just coudnt take to them, so im unsure tbh
Me too Trina. Great advice Darren.
Diane Donoghue
Eden xmas idea?
In the book
Me and my partner do alot of hiking and weve never owned a set of poles… if it makes hills easier tho…
Katrina x
Rebekka Fairweather try them out first before buying, there not for everyone
Philip Haley I have some already.
Rebekka Fairweather ?
Tried em once. My shoulders disintegrated.
Not for me. Prefer having my hands free.
Matthew Laidlaw Here’s the proof!!
Jenny Laidlaw il have to look into the studies behind this, I might be convinced aha
Especially with all my knee and back problems
Matthew Laidlaw you might need an Aarn Pack too!
Joanne Fritch
Dean Saunders that’s very good to know. I’m glad I’ve got some now
Hmm this tone is a bit “thou shalt”….
I use walking poles when the terrain demands … I actually reckon walking without poles is good for me most of the time.. my balance and core strength are improved by it
I think I can smell the Prom? ?
Such an array of comments. They are not for everyone, but the outdoor ed teacher at Castlemaine believed that if they had’ve been around in his day, he wouldn’t have had to have knee reconstruction or hip replacements!
Robb Benn
I liked them, but tricky when there’s bushes