Mt Whitney Zone Forums Gear Heads Trekking-Poles Help Hikers' Muscle Function/Reduce Soreness

ScienceDaily (June 3, 2010) -- A study by academics at Northumbria University has shown for the first time that trekking-poles help hikers maintain muscle function while significantly reducing soreness in the days following a hike.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100602121000.htm

> The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.

Love that quote, Bee. Oh so true!

Regarding trekking poles: I used to scoff at hikers using them. Thought they were just extra weight. Then I tried them. Now you can't pry them out of my hands! ...of course, maybe that has something to do with age, too.

The quote comes from an email that I wrote giving the only explanation that I could think of for why a tragedy had occurred in the mountains. When all of the obvious precautions had been taken, I declared that perhaps on that day "The weather conspired and the body betrayed"

Sometimes I amaze myself!

I've always used them, and really didn't care what other people thought. Nice to see some scientific validation for what most of us knew intrinsically.

They clearly help distribute the work load, but my primary reasons for using them are maintaining balance and taking stress off of my knees on the downhills. I've stumbled more times than I can count, but I've never fallen while using them. They also help establish a nice hiking rhythm. Long live the trekking pole!

Even BB broke down and used some new poles this past weekend! I go back and forth myself. Last summer, while jogging down from Kearsarge after seeing Rosie, I had stashed my poles on my pack. Some random guy actually yelled at me for NOT using the poles, and that I was destroying my knees.

He was an HPB (Hiking Pole Bigot)

And off to the Abbrevia it goes!

They did a fine job of quantifying the obvious.

A bit like picking up the paper and reading the following in the Health Section:

"Scientists conclude that breathing counteracts suffocation", according to a 17-year study conducted at IDDDWRUKA (Institute Dedicated to Documenting What the Rest of Us Knew Already).

What Steve said.

CaT

Mine talk to me... "Bur-ger.. Bur-ger"

They're really good for bopping the field mice on the head.

How do they work out for sleepy rattlers?

And for chucking pine cones!!

Well... I can actually answer that one... after my son nearly SAT on one of dem dar sleepy rattlers my good friend Thor used his sticks to poke and prod every bush for the rest of the trail.. I think the sticks warded off the sleepy rattlers!!!

All it took to convince this pole Luddite was using wifey's poles once a dozen years ago.

I've had my Leki Makalus for 23 years. When I brought them to the states 22 years ago and began hiking with them here, I always got wise cracks about forgetting my skis and 'where's the snow?' They are worth their weight in gold. We were using them in the alps way back then.