Trekking Poles: When They Help, When They Don't, How to Use Them

By Michael Sally · Updated August 29, 2026 · Editorial policy

Trekking poles are the most argued-about item in hiking, mostly by people using them incorrectly or not at all. The evidence and the field practice actually agree: for descents, loads, and long days, poles are worth their weight; for scrambly terrain and short flat walks, they're clutter.

What the research supports

• Reduced lower-limb loading. Studies of pole use on descents show meaningful reductions in forces at the knee and reduced muscle soreness and markers of muscle damage after mountain hiking compared with no-pole controls.
• Stability. Four points of contact measurably reduce balance excursions on uneven ground and stream crossings — the mechanism behind fewer ankle rolls.
• Slightly higher energy cost, better endurance. Arms working costs a little more oxygen, but perceived exertion for the legs drops — a trade most hikers happily make late in a long day.

Sizing and grip

Standing on flat ground with the tip by your foot, your elbow should bend at roughly 90°. Then adjust by terrain: shorten 5–10 cm for sustained climbs, lengthen 5–10 cm for descents. Use the straps correctly — hand up through the loop from below, so the strap bears weight across the back of the hand and you grip lightly. Most hikers skip the strap and death-grip the pole, which fatigues the forearms and forfeits half the benefit.

Technique by terrain

When to leave them collapsed

Short flat hikes, dense brush, and Class 2+ scrambling. If your route mixes terrain, buy poles that collapse small enough to stow on the pack, and practice the transition so you actually do it.

Buying: the features that matter and the ones that don't

Pole marketing runs ahead of pole physics; here is the short version. Locking mechanism matters most: external lever locks are field-adjustable with gloves and hold reliably; old-style internal twist locks are the ones that collapse mid-descent — avoid them. Material: aluminum bends and survives; carbon is lighter but can snap under sideways load between rocks — aluminum for rough terrain and travel abuse, carbon for weight-counters on good trails. Grip: cork conforms and manages sweat best, foam is light and fine, rubber gets slick in heat; extended grip sections below the main grip are genuinely useful for choking down on traverses without re-adjusting length. Folding style: telescoping poles adjust widely; Z-fold poles pack smallest for stowing on scrambles and in luggage. Skip: anti-shock springs (added weight and mush for a benefit studies struggle to find) and integrated camera mounts. Baskets deserve one sentence: small trekking baskets year-round, swapped to wide snow baskets in winter, or the pole simply spears through soft snow to no effect (winter guide).

Budget honestly: mid-priced aluminum lever-lock poles deliver nearly all the function of flagship models, and a lost or bent pair stings less. Spend the difference on the layers or filter you'll notice more.

What the research actually shows

Trekking poles attract strong opinions, and the evidence is more specific than either camp usually allows. It supports some claims clearly and undercuts others.

The best-supported finding concerns load on the lower limbs during descent. Studies of pole use on downhill walking have generally found meaningful reductions in ground reaction forces and in knee joint loading, along with reduced muscle damage markers and less delayed-onset soreness in the days afterward. If you take one benefit as established, take that one: poles help most going down, which is the opposite of what most beginners assume.

Balance and stability on uneven ground is also well supported, and it is the reason poles matter disproportionately for stream crossings, loose scree, snow, and anyone carrying a heavy pack or managing a knee.

The energetic picture is less flattering. Several studies have found that pole use does not reduce, and can slightly increase, overall energy cost at a given pace, because you are recruiting upper-body musculature that was previously idle. Poles redistribute effort rather than reducing it. That trade is usually worth making — shifting work from a fatiguing set of muscles to a fresh one is valuable even at equal total cost — but the common claim that poles make hiking easier in the metabolic sense is not well supported.

Practical implications follow. Set them shorter for climbing and longer for descending, roughly a few centimetres either side of the elbow-at-90-degrees baseline. Use the straps correctly, coming up through the loop so the strap takes load through your wrist rather than gripping hard with your hand. And collapse them when scrambling, where a pole in the hand is worse than no pole at all.