Does a walking pole help with weight loss?  

The main purpose of hiking and walking poles is to take some of the pressure off of your legs so that you can easily trek across long distances or up tough inclines. However, a new movement has started rising that encourages using walking poles to improve your weight loss. Those that support this method of losing weight promote these poles for activities from hiking to simply walking to the store for a few items, and everything in between.

 

How Do Poles Support Weight Loss?

·        Total Body Movements

The main reason that walking poles improve fat burning power is that they let you work out your entire body. When you walk without poles, your legs get all of the action, and though the pressure on your legs gives you some weight loss powers, because all of the energy comes from your lower half, much of the pressure is on your knees rather than your muscles.

When you use walking poles (especially two walking poles), you use both of your arms, hips, back, core, and your legs with each motion. It is the reason cross country skiing is considered one of the healthiest actions you can do for your body – because every part of your body is active and in motion, burning calories and fat away.

·        Allows You to Stay Active for Longer

When you use hiking poles, the pressure of walking is distributed over your entire body, rather than centralized on a specific location. Normally when you are walking or hiking, your knees and joints experience a lot of pressure from your own weight, causing them to weaken and become tired quickly, but with hiking poles that pressure is taken off of your knees and placed around all of your other muscles as well. As a result, it takes longer for your body to get tired, and you can keep walking or hiking for much a greater period of time. The longer you are able to stay active, the more your body will be able to burn fat.

·        Excuse to Go Out

Finally, purchasing a hiking pole or walking poles gives you an excuse to use them – so that your purchase dollars do not go to waste. Even if they did not improve fat loss, hiking poles making hiking and walking so much easier that you will find yourself more willing to have outdoor adventures, and since you will also have spent money to get these hiking poles, you will find yourself much more motivated to use them,

Burning Calories and Staying Active

It has been shown that the full body movements required to use hiking poles correctly does help burn more calories and help you lose weight. In addition, because none of your muscles will experience a great deal of pressure (as they would without the poles when your knees and joints experience greater strain), you can keep yourself active without tiring out as easily. But even without those two truths, purchasing hiking poles may be the motivation you need to get out and be active, and being active at all is a great way to lose fat and keep yourself fit and healthy.

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