How's it going everyone my name is Hayley and welcome back to Set To Hike. Today we are
going to be talking about some of the benefits of these guys, trekking poles. Now you may be a bit
skeptical about using trekking poles wondering are they really worth it? Do they really make
much difference? Or maybe you've always had the perception that trekking poles are only for people
with knee problems. So i'm not here to tell you that you should get them, but we're going to be
highlighting some of the benefits that come with using them. So in no particular order, number one:
a shock absorber. So this is the number one reason why i myself use hiking poles, in the
same way that running is a high impact activity on your joints so is hiking. Especially when
you've got weight on your back, you're going over uneven surfaces, you're going uphill and downhill.
Hiking poles are going to engage your arms and your shoulders, you're going to have another
point of contact with the ground and they're going to help share the load of that impact. Ultimately
reducing the stress on your joints. So over the course of the day you might notice a difference,
you might not, but over the course of 10 years, you're going to thank yourself. Number two:
balance. This one pretty much explains itself but when you're going over those river crossings
or loose rocks or slippery gravel hiking poles are going to help you keep balance ,and provide that
little bit of extra support that you might need in those tricky situations. number three: emergency
aid so hopefully you'll never find yourself in this situation but maybe you get bitten by
a snake or you sprain your ankle you could use your hiking pole as a splint, or even a crutch,
yes you could use a stick but you might not always be in the immediate vicinity to find a stick
whereas a hiking pole would literally be in your hand. Number four improve circulation. Have you
ever been hiking and looked down at your hands and noticed that your hands have become quite puffy?
This is basically the fluid pooling up in your hands. Using hiking poles will help keep that
movement going keep that blood flowing and help with circulation. Another way you can help this
is whenever you have a break you can stop and swing your arms up around your head.
Number five: helps keep pace. You will definitely notice this if you use hiking poles, particularly
if you're going on long stretches where it's flat or there's nothing exciting to look at.
You'll find that you get a rhythm going by using hiking poles and i think this could be
particularly helpful to certain types of people when they need that little bit of an extra boost
to keep them going. Number six: a shelter or tent poles, i was amazed the day that i found out they
specifically designed tents to be pitched using your hiking poles as opposed to tent poles. My new
one man tent uses this method, and it's great. You don't have to carry tent poles, you shave a tiny
bit of weight and a piece of hiking gear becomes multi-purpose. Number seven: a selfie stick. I
know what you're thinking are selfie sticks still a thing? i'm going to leave you to answer that
question but they literally design a thing called a stick pick and that slides onto the end of your
trekking pole and it has a thread on it so you can attach a camera. I have something similar here,
this is not designed for hiking but it's just so you can get a little bit of a visual reference on
what that looks like. Certain tracking poles also have a thread built into the top of the handle
so if selfies are your thing then maybe a trekking pole can provide you with an extra angle.
Number eight: a machete. so we are not literally going to be using hiking poles as a machete
but something that i find myself doing is i will use my trekking pole to sort of lean a bush
out of the way as i go through in one seamless motion particularly if the track is a little bit
overgrown. And because i wear shorts a lot of the time it's going to help a little bit with getting
scratches to my legs. Number nine: posture. So we've all probably experienced this at one stage
we're hiking without hiking poles we're going up a steep hill and we put our hands on our thighs
to help us get up. When we do this we tend to lean forward and if we've got a heavy pack on
it might put unnecessary pressure on our back. So by using hiking poles it's going to help us keep
upright it's going to keep our chest up and help with our posture. So coming to you from the trail,
i've just thought of two bonus tips that i've used my poles for on this particular trip that
i haven't really used them for in the past and one is to clear the spider webs. There have been
ginormous spider webs that go right from one side of the track to the other so you can't
really squeeze past it so i've used my pole to get one end of the spider web and try and pull it back
and join it to a tree on the other side of the track so i don't completely destroy its web.
The other thing that i've used poles for on this trip is i've recently seen like three snakes in
this space of a few minutes, and because it's just me here i'm sort of using my poles to
bang on the ground in front of me to try and create a bit more vibration, just because the
track is really quite skinny and they just i keep seeing them right off the edge of the track. So
a couple of bonus tips for ya . So there you. have it, nine benefits of using hiking poles.
I don't take hiking poles on day hikes but when i'm going on an overnight hike
or multi-day hikes, I do not leave home without them. So i hope this
video has been helpful to you, thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next one.