Hill Running – Benefits & 5 Not-So Easy Workouts That Rock

It goes without saying that hill running has a lot of physical benefits. However, it has a lot of mental benefits as well. Let's have a quick look at some of these benefits.

Enhances the Body's Endurance

Resistance training is designed to challenge your body limits to improve your overall strength and agility, such as running on sand.

When you run uphill, you're going against gravity. This puts extra pressure on different muscle groups, such as the calves, glutes, quads, and hamstrings, helping them build more muscles.

Uses Variety of Muscle Groups

Running on hills gives you a full-body workout. As your upper and lower body muscles work to propel you up the hill, it will help you become more powerful and coordinated in your running.

Improves Balance & Coordination

Hill training helps improve balance and coordination as it requires you to navigate small changes in terrain or different levels of incline. The core and legs muscles have to work together to keep you stable while running.

Develops Mental Toughness

It takes a lot of mental toughness and fortitude to remain focused on a hill session. When all your body is working hard, it's easy to lose focus or give up. But by pushing through the pain and persevering, you can develop the mental strength and confidence to run through any challenging situation.

A good option is to incorporate hills, in lieu of speed work. Incorporating hills into your runs build endurance while also preparing you for speed work and rapid changes in pace, making it a key component of any runner's training regimen.

If your goal is to run to lose weight, hills will burn more calories than running on flat ground.

Hill Repeats - - What Are They And Do They work?

Tracks can be repetitive and even boring, so ditch the track for hill repeats instead. By doing this, you'll not only recruit your fast twitch muscle fibers to make you run faster, but you'll also avoid the speed work's risk of injury. Hill repeats are ideal because they rely on perceived effort rather than pace; plus, the duration and intensity can be easily adjusted based on your needs and goals.

After a moderate 5-20 minute warm-up jog, do some dynamic stretches and drills such as high knees, butt kicks, and skips. Then, run 6-8 x 1 minute hard uphill (Your breathing should be difficult but not so much that you can't continue after a few repeats) and recover with a slow jog back down (1-2 minutes). Finally, end with a light 5-20 minute jog followed by foam rolling to relieve muscle tension.

Uphill Progression Run - What Are They And Do They work?

If you have had an unfortunate race that ends with an uphill, I feel bad for you. We have all been there and the race director who thought that was a good idea was wrong, terribly wrong.

Uphill progression runs not only show you how to use your muscles for power on an incline, but also how to keep pushing when you're tired. Progression runs of any kind are excellent for teaching runners pacing during a race - something that's often difficult to do if you've gone out too fast in the past, something every runner has done at least once in their runner career.

If you're a marathoner, this type of work is beneficial to help improve your running. Learning to engage your fast twitch muscles when tired will make the end of any race feel easier and increase your chances at getting that personal record (PR) you've been training so hard for

Uphill Form

This is something that I have seen more times than I prefer to count. Poor form running hills. A proper running form is easy if you are aware of your technique. One thing that I have done was film myself (actually I had my wife film me while I ran) which allowed me to see what my form looked like going up a hill and down.

Here are a few tips to help with proper hill running form:

Ensure that your hips, chest, and head are perpendicular to an imaginary horizontal line.

While going uphill and downhill, keep your body upright. When going up the hill, slightly lean from the hips in, but don't stoop.

Keep your head and chest up, eyes gazing directly ahead of you on the ground about 10-20 feet in front. Do not stare at your feet or look too far up the hill.

Below are the posture guidelines you should follow to ensure deep and efficient breathing:

- Engage your core muscles

- Keep your back straight

-Chest out

- Hold your head up

For your arms, keep them bent at a 90-degree angle. They should be moving back-and-forth rotation, not a side-to-side movement.

The best way to generate momentum when running uphill is by swinging your arms. Swing your elbows backward. This might seem exaggerated, but it works!

As you run up the hill, take shorter strides instead of reaching your leg out further as if trying to power through. Keep your feet low to the ground at all times for more stability and an upright posture.

Downhill Running

Once you clear the hill, you should be breathing heavily and have slightly fatigued legs. Then, all you need to do is turn around head back down to the starting point. But beware--the downhill is not something to take lightly.

Run too hard or with bad form on the way down, and it'll come back to bite you later in pain. Thanks to the constant braking effect while going downhill, this section of the training puts a lot more pressure on your feet and knees than usual.

Here’s how to build proper downhill running form.

1. Avoid overstriding by letting gravity pull you down, which will in turn help speed up your pace.

2. Instead of taking long strides, try shorter and quicker steps – this will also increase your stride rate.

3. Pay attention to how you land - focus on landing on your forefoot instead of heel first. Landing on the heels creates a braking effect that slows you down and can jar your entire body

4 . Try to land as light as possible, preferably on the mid-to forefoot area; do not pound the ground

5.During downhill running, keep a consistent stride turnover and effort throughout the rest of your workout so that one part doesn't feel too difficult

2. Long Hill Repeats

While short hills focus on speed and power, long hill repeats build your aerobic endurance. On these runs, resist the urge to go fast--focus on building up your stamina instead.

The Benefits

To run up a long hill, your body needs to recruit both slow-twitch and intermediate fibers.

This type of workout can help you become more economic in your running, as well as improve your lactate turn point.

By building aerobic and muscular endurance—key for any runner aiming at longer distances such race half marathons or full marathons—these types of workouts are crucial in training.

3. Long Hill Runs

This type of hill run is the most popular option for runners looking to improve their skills and overall fitness. When it comes to distance, choose what feels right for you and will help you achieve your training goals. But don't overdo it! The average longrun hill distance tends to be between three miles and 10 miles.

The Benefits

If you are looking to train your slow-twitch fibers, which peak at lower intensity levels and over longer periods of time, then this hill workout is perfect for you. It will also help increase ankle flexibility, improving stride length and frequency.

4. Downhill Running

The downhill hill workouts section can help you improve your running ability if used correctly. This type of run should be done at a controlled pace, starting out slow and gradually building up speed as you go. The key is to find the balance between control and power.

The Benefits

Downhill running will help improve your leg muscles strength and power allowing for more efficient strides while running. It will also increase your speed capabilities, which will come in handy during races.

5. Hill Bounding

If you want to get stronger which leads to a faster running speed, then hill bounding is the workout for you. It will improve your form and increase your strength without having to lift weights.

The Benefits

Hill bounding will help strengthen your leg muscles, which in turn boosts speed, power, and endurance. It also builds a great base that you can use to either increase mileage or intensity during other runs.

You can easily simulate hill repeats by using your treadmill's incline feature. While it might be a bit boring, it's a perfect way to maintain your form on busy days.

First, you need to perform a 5 to 10-minute warm-up before the exercise to avoid injuries. After that, you can hop on the treadmill.

If you're going to run, you should maintain an incline of 5 to 6%. However, if you're going to walk, you should notch it up to 10%. A treadmill will give you the perk of creating patterns of inclination to suit your style perfectly.

To simulate going downhill, all you have to do is bring the treadmill back to 0% inclination. Many treadmills have built-in programs that provide hill training workouts that simulate running up hills and downhills.