Do poles really "save the legs" during uphill pole walking at different intensities?

In sky- and trail-running competitions, many athletes use poles. The aims of this study were to investigate whether the use of poles affects the force exerted on the ground at the feet (Ffoot), cardiorespiratory variables and maximal performance during uphill walking.

Fifteen male trail runners completed four testing sessions on different days. On the first two days, they performed two incremental uphill treadmill walking tests to exhaustion with (PW_incr) and without poles (W_incr). On the following days, they performed submaximal and maximal tests with (PW₈₀ and PW_max) and without (W₈₀ and W_max) poles on an outdoor trail course. We measured cardiorespiratory parameters, the rating of perceived exertion, the axial poling force and Ffoot.

When walking on the treadmill, we found that poles reduced maximum Ffoot (- 2.8 ± 6.4%, p = 0.03) and average Ffoot (- 2.4 ± 3.3%, p = 0.0089)_. However, when outdoors, we found pole effect only for average Ffoot (p = 0.0051), which was lower when walking with poles (- 2.6 ± 3.9%, p = 0.0306 during submaximal trial and - 5.21 ± 5.51%, p = 0.0096 during maximal trial). We found no effects of poles on cardiorespiratory parameters across all tested conditions. Performance was faster in PW_max than in W_max (+ 2.5 ± 3.4%, p = 0.025).

The use of poles reduces the foot force both on the treadmill and outdoors at submaximal and maximal intensities. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that the use of poles "saves the legs" during uphill without affecting the metabolic cost.