Poles: The Extra Edge Every Trail Runner Should Consider

Kilometre 127 of the Tarawera 100 miler and I’m on my hands and knees scooping dirt from the side of the trail. Not because I’ve bonked. Not because I’m lost. Because the locking mechanism on my poles has given up on life and the only thing holding them together is a paste of New Zealand volcanic soil jammed into the joints.

My pacer is standing there, watching, unable to help — it’s a self-supported section. Every three or four kilometres we repeat this ritual: poles collapse, I stop, grab a handful of grit, pack it in, twist, pray, keep moving.

And yet, even with all that faff, I wouldn’t have left them behind. Because on the steep climbs and brutal descents of that course, those rattling, half-broken poles were still giving me something my legs alone couldn’t.

That experience taught me two things. First, poles are worth it. Second, check your gear before race day — not during it.

Why Bother With Poles?

If you’ve only ever seen poles in the hands of retirees doing laps of the local park, I get the scepticism. But spend any time in the ultra and mountain running world and you’ll notice something: the people pushing the hardest are often the ones carrying two sticks of carbon fibre.

The benefits come down to a few key areas.

Spreading the Load

The most intuitive benefit is load redistribution. When you’re grinding up a 25% gradient at hour fourteen of a race, your quads and calves are doing enormous work. Poles recruit your upper body — arms, shoulders, lats, core — to share that load. You’re essentially turning yourself into a four-wheel-drive instead of relying on two.

This isn’t just a feeling. Research backs it up. A study by Howatson and colleagues, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2011), had 37 participants ascend and descend Mount Snowdon — some with poles, some without. The pole group showed significantly less muscle damage across the board. Their maximal voluntary contraction (basically how much force their legs could still produce) was better maintained immediately after and at 24 and 48 hours post-trek. Muscle soreness was significantly lower at 24 and 48 hours. Creatine kinase — a blood marker of muscle damage — was lower at 24 hours.

In practical terms: poles don’t just help you during the effort, they help you recover faster afterwards. For multi-day events or back-to-back training weekends, that’s enormous.

Protecting Your Joints on the Downs

Downhills are where trail running does its real damage. Every descending step sends impact forces up through your ankles, knees, and hips. Over the course of 50 or 100km with thousands of metres of descent, that adds up.

Research by Schwameder and colleagues at the University of Salzburg (1999), published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, found that poles reduced peak knee joint forces by 12-25% during downhill walking on a 25-degree decline. A later study by Bohne and Abendroth-Smith (2007), published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, confirmed similar reductions when participants carried external loads — exactly the scenario you’re in when running an ultra with a mandatory gear pack.

The mechanism is straightforward: you’re transferring some of the braking force through the poles and into the ground via your arms, rather than absorbing it all through your legs. You also tend to adopt a slightly more forward-leaning posture with poles, which reduces the moment arm at the knee — less leverage means less stress on the joint.

The RPE Advantage

Here’s the one that surprises people. Multiple studies have found that using poles can actually increase total energy expenditure — you’re moving more muscles, after all — but the perceived effort goes down. Researchers have described this as poles increasing physiological output without increasing perceived exertion.

A study examining steep uphill walking found that pole use was only marginally more economical in pure metabolic terms, but the substantially lower rate of perceived exertion (RPE) during pole use suggested poles may delay the onset of fatigue during prolonged efforts. When you’re 80km into a 100-miler, fatigue is as much psychological as it is physical. If poles make the climbs feel 10-15% easier in your head, that compounds over hours.

I think of it as a “few percent gains” across multiple systems. A bit less leg damage. A bit less perceived effort. A bit more stability on technical ground. None of those individually are game-changing, but stack them up over 12, 20, or 30 hours of racing and the cumulative effect is real.

The European Standard

Walk into any major European mountain ultra and you’ll see poles everywhere. At UTMB — arguably the most competitive ultramarathon in the world — approximately 90% of runners use poles. From elite racers to mid-packers, it’s standard equipment. The same goes for the Tor des Geants, CCC, and virtually every mountain race across the Alps.

This isn’t new, either. Runners in France, Italy, and Spain have been using poles in mountain races for decades. The terrain demands it — when you’re dealing with 10,000+ metres of elevation gain across rocky alpine ridgelines, poles aren’t optional gear, they’re essential equipment.

In Australia, adoption has been slower but it’s picking up. As our ultra scene matures and more runners tackle serious mountain courses — think UTA 100, Hut2Hut, and the increasingly popular alpine events — poles are becoming a more common sight. The old perception that poles are somehow “cheating” or only for hikers is fading as people see firsthand what they offer.

If you’re considering making the jump, our pole comparison tool breaks down the key specs across popular trail running poles to help you find the right pair.

They Need Training Too

Here’s the part that catches people out: you can’t just rock up on race day with a fresh pair of poles and expect magic. Poles are a skill, and like any skill, they need practice.

I’ve seen runners at ultras pull out poles for the first time at kilometre 40 and within a few hours they’re dealing with sore shoulders, tight forearms, and blisters on their palms. Their upper body simply wasn’t conditioned for the repetitive loading. Their technique was inefficient — too much grip pressure, wrong pole length, planting too far forward or too far back.

Using poles effectively means training with them. Not every run, but consistently enough that:

Your upper body is conditioned. Your shoulders, triceps, and grip muscles need to handle hours of repetitive loading without breaking down.
Your technique is automatic. Planting timing, pole angle, and the transition between stowing and deploying should be second nature.
You know your gear. How to adjust the length quickly. How the locking mechanism works (and whether it’s reliable — more on that shortly). How to stow them on your pack for runnable sections.

A good rule of thumb: if you’re planning to use poles in a race, incorporate them into at least one long run or hike per week for 6-8 weeks beforehand. Do some of your hill repeats with poles. Practice on the terrain you’ll face — rocky climbs, muddy descents, technical single track.

The Gear Matters (A Cautionary Tale)

Which brings me back to Tarawera and those disintegrating poles.

I knew my poles were getting old. The twist-lock mechanisms had been loosening for months. But they’d always held together just enough, so I kept putting off replacing them. Classic runner logic — if it’s not completely broken, it’s fine.

It was not fine.

The combination of race-day vibration, sweat, and New Zealand’s volcanic grit worked its way into every joint. By the second half of the race, the connection points would come loose every few kilometres and the poles would literally fall apart in my hands — the sections telescoping down or separating entirely.

The only fix I found was grabbing handfuls of dirt and sand from the trail edge and rubbing it into the joints to create enough friction to hold the locking mechanism together temporarily. It worked, sort of, for about 3km at a time before the cycle repeated.

My pacer watched this unfold with a mixture of sympathy and frustration. In a self-supported section, there’s nothing they can do except stand there while you perform field surgery on your gear. It’s anguish for everyone involved.

The kicker? Even with all that drama, the poles were still worth having. On the steep climbs out of aid stations and the punishing descents, they were genuinely helping. The sections where I didn’t have working poles felt noticeably harder on my legs.

I went straight out and bought a new pair after that race. No more twist-locks that had done 2,000km. No more “she’ll be right” attitude about aging gear.

Pre-Race Gear Check

The lesson extends beyond poles, but poles are particularly prone to this because they have moving parts, locking mechanisms, and contact points that wear over time. Before any race:

Inspect the locking mechanism. Whether it’s twist-lock, lever-lock, or push-button — test it under load. Hang your body weight on the pole. If it slips at all, it’ll fail in a race.
Check the tips. Worn carbide tips won’t grip on rock. Most poles have replaceable tips — swap them if they’re rounded off.
Test the full extension and collapse cycle multiple times. It should be smooth and positive.
Do a long training run with your race poles in the final 2-3 weeks. Not a shakedown jog — a proper session on terrain similar to your race.

They’re Not for Everyone (And That’s Fine)

I’ll be honest: poles add complexity. You’ve got two extra things to carry, manage, stow, and deploy. On fast, runnable single track they can be a hindrance — catching on trees, slowing your arm swing, generally getting in the way. Some runners find them fiddly and distracting. Others simply don’t like the feel.

If your races are predominantly flat or gently rolling, poles probably aren’t worth the trade-off. If you’re racing short and fast — anything under 50km on moderate terrain — the time spent stowing and deploying them likely negates any benefit.

But if you’re running mountain ultras with significant vertical gain, if you’re tackling courses with extended steep climbs and rocky descents, if you’re racing for 12+ hours and need to manage leg fatigue across the full distance — poles are worth serious consideration.

The best advice I can give: don’t overthink it. Try them in training. See how they feel. If they click for you, great — you’ve found a few percent gains that add up over long distances. If they don’t, no drama. Some of the best ultrarunners in the world race without them.

The Bottom Line

The science is clear: poles reduce muscle damage, lower perceived exertion, protect joints on descents, and help distribute workload across your whole body. The anecdotal evidence from decades of European mountain racing reinforces what the studies show — there’s a reason 90% of UTMB runners carry them.

But they’re a tool, not a shortcut. They need training, they need maintenance, and they need to be matched to the demands of your race. Get those things right and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start using them sooner.

Just maybe buy a new pair before your next 100-miler. Trust me on that one.

Planning a race with significant vertical? Build your pole strategy into your RacePlan — map which sections warrant poles and which are better run without them.

References

Howatson, G., et al. (2011). “Trekking Poles Reduce Exercise-Induced Muscle Injury during Mountain Walking.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(1), 140-145.
Schwameder, H., et al. (1999). “Knee joint forces during downhill walking with hiking poles.” Journal of Sports Sciences, 17(12), 969-978.
Bohne, M. & Abendroth-Smith, J. (2007). “Effects of hiking downhill using trekking poles while carrying external loads.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 39(1), 177-183.