Outdoor Gear and Equipment - Trekking Poles / Walking Poles help you to hike better
Trekking poles / walking poles are intended to make hiking easier. Not only as third support for those with weak knee but for strong leg as well. Initially it looks clumber some for me especially when climbing through dense and muddy jungle whiles you have to shuffle between crawling under fallen log, hanging on roots up or down a slope and keeping poles at your hand. Lately I found it really useful particularly when you need extra push to walk up high stairs of trek. It even more useful as cushioning your step when ascending and it save your knee cartilage, better precautious now than sorry at years later. Don’t take your knee for granted, you may not feel the effect now, but running downhill with 10kg backpack will ruin your knee. I learn my lesson during descending of Mount Trusmadi. Back at lodge in Kota Kinabalu I feel sharp pain on back outside of my right knee that makes walk down staircase really hard. Fortunately my reconstructed ACL left knee was okay.
Study by James Madison University found out that hiker using walking poles / hiking poles work out harder without feeling any extra effort. It means that you feel better using walking poles while in fact your body work harder and burn more calories. This is because “ the workload is spread over entire body, not just the legs”. Hiker with poles used 10 percent more oxygen and heart rate 6 percent higher than hiker walking at the same speed without poles.
My Walking Pole
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ReplyDeleteHiking poles are great in any environment - from snowy trails to muddy rainforests. They add traction and can actually keep you fit because they make your body work harder without the feeling of extra effort. I found a great list of hiking poles moving forward to this year, and they are all great: http://backpackingmastery.com/top-picks/best-hiking-poles.html
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