The post Three Stride Benefits of Using Trekking Poles appeared first on iRunFar.
I love running; it’s my favorite activity. But I have historically not loved using trekking poles for running.
And while I also love the outdoors, I don’t particularly love hiking to see it. As such, I have previously avoided routes and races requiring substantial hiking. Why hike when you can run? Living in Oregon — and adventuring in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and California, where both terrain and elevation are moderate — allowed me to do and see nearly everything with only one foot on the ground at a time.
As a trail runner from the “Born to Run” and Anton Krupicka era, I also enjoy running both fast and minimally. I prefer to carry little gear and be nearly hands-free. For me, trail running was just that, running.
When I saw hiking poles in mountain ultras, that was what I thought: poles are for hiking. These were ultra hikes, not runs. Poles looked cumbersome and heavy, and were another reason to avoid such events.
Then I moved to Colorado and visited the San Juan Mountains. It was a new game — peaks and climbs so stark, ridges so high, and air so thin. And the rock, my god, the rock! After a few misadventures around the Hardrock 100 course, including too much time with four or five points of body contact on waves of moving scree, I finally tried trekking poles.
And I loved them, but not for the reasons you may think. Yes, they kept me mercifully upright. And they kept me moving up the 20% grade of Little Giant Pass at 12,000 feet altitude. Indeed, poles can significantly enhance propulsion, particularly up steep grades. They can be invaluable for balance and control — especially on rugged, technical, and unstable terrain — and can also reduce body stress on the legs and the lower spine.
I like them for those reasons, but that’s not why I love them.
I loved what they did to my stride. They radically improved my posture, awareness, and athleticism — and, best of all, connected my arms to my legs. I loved how I felt with poles, and I loved even more how much better I felt when I put them away.
Running poles can be an amazing tool. And you don’t need to be an extreme-altitude, mega-vertical mountain-crazed hiker to derive their incredible benefits. Even occasional use can powerfully impact the fast and far running that the rest of us love.
Using poles can improve the running stride, and we’ll explore them in this article, and in the video below.
Using Poles Can Improve Your Running Posture
Efficient running mechanics has two components: posture and propulsion. Posture is of first and foremost importance. The body’s position and alignment determine our overall momentum and the orientation and efficiency of our limbs — arms and legs — to propel.
The most efficient running posture includes a hip hinge with a neutral spine. A neutral spine creates a balanced position, where core musculature fires automatically in three dimensions. It also facilitates a natural cohesion between the upper and lower body by connecting the shoulder blades and pelvis.
A hip hinge creates optimal orientation: angling the trunk, the body’s primary mass, forward while angling the legs to push off and arms to swing behind us.
Yet many running factors, particularly on trails and over ultra distances, conspire to wreck our posture and rob us of the hip hinge. Fatigue and gear — like hydration packs, bottles, and belts — bend our spines. Rugged terrain and fear strip away the forward-orienting hip hinge in exchange for a safer, fully upright posture.
Poles can facilitate both a neutral spine and hip hinge. Without poles, spine posture can compensate either with too much flexion, an underuse of posterior chain muscle, or overuse, resulting in too much spine arching. Neither position is efficient, often resulting in lost propulsion.
A pole planted in front of us acts as a center-of-mass assist, taking much of the weight that otherwise must be supported by core and hip musculature. This decreased load makes maintaining a neutral spine and hip hinge easier.
In fact, using poles properly, it is almost impossible not to be hip-hinged. While it is too easy to stand upright without a hip hinge and knee or ankle bounce to propel, such a strategy is impossible with poles. Propulsion with poles requires a forward plant and rearward push, something that simply cannot be done without a hip-hinged, forward posture.
Nowhere is the impact of poles on posture more evident than downhills. A common downhill inefficiency is running too erect, or leaning backward. While this strategy feels safer and may prevent a forward fall, it also decreases hip utilization for downhill cushioning control, and can lead to increased lower leg and foot stress, which may result in increased foot problems, like toenail damage and blisters.
Even light pole planting downhill requires maintaining a forward, hip-hinged posture. A pole strike in front of us, while helping cushion the downhill impact, also provides stability and safety that reinforces that maximum-efficient hip hinge and neutral, trunk-forward posture.
Do you have bad posture habits? Trouble keeping your hips underneath you? Take some trekking poles out on a run — particularly one with moderate vertical gain and loss — and feel how they enhance posture up and down hills.
Poles Create Better Propulsion
Besides enhanced balance, better propulsion is the primary benefit of using poles. But enhanced propulsion goes beyond simply converting arm strength into two additional legs.
Superficially, pole utilization acts like two extra legs: when using an alternating left pole-right leg and right pole-left leg strategy, two points of contact push off with every step, creating a lot of extra energy. But the poles enhance propulsion through another, whole-body mechanism.
The scapula — the base of the arm — connects to the pelvis — the base of the leg — via the trunk and myofascial structures. A robust and efficient arm swing engages the scapula to slide down and back. This scapular action transmits energy through fascial structures to the pelvis, enhancing leg action.
Yet this isn’t automatic. Several factors, including gear, posture, joint, and soft tissue restrictions — and just plain bad habits — can cut that scapula-pelvis connection. Indeed, so many of us run only with our legs, with our arms doing little more than acting as counter-balances and carrying devices.
A powerful rearward pole push requires and coincides with a downward-inward shoulder-blade motion. This scapular action contracts the thoracodorsal fascia — a robust myofascial structure that criss-crosses the posterior ribcage, transmitting contractile energy directly to the pelvis, and into the legs.
This combined scapular-pelvis action creates even more propulsive energy, as well as enhancing landing efficiency via a more vertical, or compact lift up-land beneath leg strategy. Better yet, a robust and efficient pole push may help reestablish this scapula-trunk-pelvis connection that sustains on flat runs, even when the poles are in the closet, collecting dust. This makes you faster up a mountain and later down the road, with your hands free.
Poles Help to Mitigate Imbalances and Injuries
The most fascinating benefit of pole use for the sports medicine professional is its impact on imbalance and injury mitigation.
Poles have obvious benefits for balance, helping keep us on two feet in challenging conditions. But with poles, we now have four points of contact with the ground and an enhanced awareness of what our arms are doing in space. Moreover, the presence of poles acts as a frame, and our body fits within the vertical space between them.
All this creates extra information, improving proprioception — our brain’s picture of our body’s position and motion in space. Using poles provides tremendous feedback on body alignment and motion, including:
- Trunk position: Is the spine vertical, without leaning left or right?
- Pelvis position: Is the pelvis centered under the trunk and above the feet and legs, without shifting to either side?
- Dynamics: Do the arms swing forward (pole planting) and back (pole pushing) equally? Does the trunk lightly rotate symmetrically?
Pole usage can provide continuous, real-time feedback on these complex dynamics — many of which are root causes of pain and inefficiency. Even better, specific poling strategies can help correct stride imbalances or possibly decrease landing and push-off stress to a weak, sensitive, or even injured area.
Using a double-pole strategy involves both poles pushing off at the same time. Commonly seen in Nordic skate skiing, double poling is often paired with one particular push-off leg. This could be particularly useful for runners with a known weakness — such as a weaker or less stable foot, ankle, knee, or hip. Both stability and strength can be enhanced by pairing the double-pole plant with the leg’s push off.
Moreover, should a runner develop pain or become injured in a race of any kind, mountain or flat, a double-pole strategy can be used as a sort of crutch: a double-pole plant supporting and supplementing that compromised limb without limping.
Tips and Conclusion
Pole running has many benefits, on and off the mountain. Even if you don’t intend to compete with them, consider occasional training sessions using poles. They are most straightforward to use on hills, where posture and hip hinge are most important and often most difficult to execute. They are a great way to complement an easy recovery day — where the poles can unweight the legs — and heavy vertical training.
Check in with your spine and pelvis position and motion by feeling your position between the poles. Use the poles to feel for symmetry of arm swing forward (planting) and rearward (pole push) swing: can you feel the shoulder blade move and engage?
Lastly, try occasional bouts of double poling with the same side, and feel how that accentuates push off and supports — and even unloads — the push-off leg.
Poles aren’t just for hikers. They might just be a great stride efficiency tool. Have fun exploring!
By the way, the iRunFar team has a guide to the best trekking poles available. If you’re in the market for your first, or next, set of poles for running, give this guide a look.
Call for Comments
- Do you use poles?
- If so, in what situations do you find them helpful?
