The Benefits of Uphill Running and Sprinting

With winter fast approaching, maybe the last thing you have on your mind is getting exercise outside. Maybe the weather isn’t (and won't get) bad where you live  - It’s still fairly warm here in Korea, with typical early November weather upon us. I’ve written about this because I've noticed that many runners avoid inclines, but I’ve found this running approach to be beneficial in a number of ways. My recommendation is definitely not revolutionary, but a lot of individuals don’t place enough value on the benefits of the activity of incline or hill work.

Although running strengthens your lower leg muscles primarily, your upper leg muscles are especially stressed by running up hills. Each one percent increase in the elevation angle on your treadmill requires four percent more energy. So, running say 8 km/h at a 15% grade requires as much effort and energy as running at 12.8 km/h on a flat surface.

Here is a useful treadmill calorie and hill gradient calculator: 42.195km.net/e/treadsim

A major advantage of incline running is less compressive forces being applied to the joints and soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments) as opposed to running on flat surfaces. I have also found that there is less risk of injury (even with a high output of energy) because stride rates (speeds) are reduced and more control can be used than when performing a specific exercise such as running, cycling, walking, and even the elliptical.

Let’s think about it this way. If a car is on a flat surface and is going at 80 km/h then hits an incline, the speed of the car slows down due to the incline, yet the RPMs are still quite high. If the car were to continue at 80 km/h it would have to work even harder to maintain that speed requirement on the incline.

In our case, we are looking to keep our body’s “RPMs” high but not the speed. Incline/hill sprints targets the backside, strengthening and toning the booty and the hamstrings, not to mention the abdominal muscles and torso. 

Another selling point for running hills (if toning your butt wasn't enough) is that the muscle groups you use to climb hills are virtually the same as those you use for sprinting, so hill work enhances your speed by building strength. In other words, the benefits of running uphill will help you to running flats. And of course, there’s the obvious stimulation to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

How to start running uphill: think 'Eyes up'!

Most runners’ lean into the hill when they start running up it, usually by bending forward at the waist. While some degree of forward lean is necessary when running up a hill, a lot of people lean much too far forward. This negatively affects your uphill running ability in several ways. You decrease your working lung volume and can't open up as well. 

You'll want all the oxygen you can get going uphill. As well, leaning over at the waist causes strain on the lower back and overworks the hamstrings. By standing tall running uphill, you're better able to engage your glutes to help power you up the hill and helps open up your lungs to get in the oxygen you need.

A helpful mental cue to maintaining proper form is to think about “standing tall” when you run up a hill, since you’re unlikely to be leaning too far back. This is one of those mental cues that, while technically inaccurate, is still very helpful. Other helpful cues include “drive your hips” which reminds you to focus on using your hip muscles to power your way up the hill and extend your leg fully behind you. 

Once you’ve reached the top of a hill, be sure not to slouch over, since that will wreak havoc on your efficiency on the flats, too. Remember that your stride length and stride rate will decrease. So it is important to maintain form and keep using quick light steps up the hill versus trying to take longer steps.

When using a treadmill when running uphill, DON'T HOLD ON TO THE BARS! If you're holding on to the bars, you are angling your body in such a way that you're effectively reducing the gradient you are working at. If you have to hold on to them, the exercise you are doing is too difficult. Reduce the gradient or the speed. 

Drawbacks:

The common suggestion coaches give to run hills doesn’t always deserve quite the attention it gets. If you're training to compete on only flat surface, running on flat terrain is better than running uphill.

The reason for this is that running flat is less hard on your body. The reduced intensity allows for more training, and more training is a bigger stimulus for improvement to running performance at a VO2max pace than the relatively small difference in intensity. More training is better for pretty much any athletic goal you have, as long as you can rest adequately.

One thing that can be said about uphill running is that it doesn’t have quite the impact of flat running. Because it yields good gains to running on flat terrain it may still be a good supplement to normal running. And, of course, if you plan on competing in any event involving running on hills, practicing running uphill is essential, make no mistake.

So there you have it. I've been trying to switch up my cardio workout, alternating between biking and running uphill on the treadmill. I was once an avid flat-surface runner, but I find running uphill to be less hard on my joints but gives me the sweat and exertion I crave. What are your thoughts on the different ways to get your cardio fix? Leave me your ideas in the comment section! Until next time :)