Here are a few photos of folks using trekking poles on uphill sections of trail. When used in this way the poles can either reduce the amount of effort required by the legs or, with the same leg effort, increase the speed of travel up the trail.
In the third photo you might notice Ron's left hand and how the strap comes from the pole under the palm of the hand and back around the wrist. To achieve this grip bring your whole hand up from under the grip through the strap and then lightly grasp the pole. When used in this fashion it is not necessary to grip the pole with your hand. Instead the strap absorbs most of the effort while you grasp the pole lightly with your thumb and first finger mainly to maintain control of the pole. Notice in Ron's right hand how relaxed the grip of the pole is.
If you do not have or use the straps you must grab the pole with enough effort to prevent it's slipping during the push and recovery phases. This requires a lot of extra unnecessary work by the hand.
As a pole is planted the upper body and arm can be used to apply a force on the strap. The arm the swings down and back in sort of a pendulum fashion and the force applied helps propel the hiker forward and up the trail. Very experienced users can also include a slight crunch with the upper body using abdominal muscles to increase the force on the pole. A small amount of shoulder rotation (second photo) can help as well.
Every hiker can benefit from this type of use on uphill sections of trail even with only a small force applied to the pole. Remember using the pole reduces the work required from the legs!
I'll try to find some pole use during downhill as well.
Text and photos Copyright 2007-2023.