Hill Training
Chelsea Hall, PT
Fit For Life Physical Therapy
Hill training – do you love the muscle burn those hills bring or dread them more than any workout?
Whether you love hills or hate them, they can be a critical piece of your training plan. There are many benefits of hill training: improving cadence, building strength in your legs, activating your glutes, increasing your endurance, and giving you a confidence boost on race day as you tackle that hill!
When adding hill training to your program, make sure you follow the MIT training plan and start gradually to prevent risk of injury. Start at 2–3% grade with a goal to work up to 5–10% grade. Begin on softer surfaces such as grass or dirt if possible. Focus on lifting your knees higher, having a slight forward lean, looking a few feet ahead, relaxing your grip and your jaw, and pumping your arms back and forth versus across your body.
There are several ways to add hills to your weekly training. One way is hill sprints after an easy run. Instead of doing strides, add several 10–15 second hard uphill sprints. Another way is hill repeats, which could take the place of a track workout. After a good warm up, run 4–8 repeats which can range anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes long; this all depends on your experience and end goal.
Another way to add hills is an uphill progression run. This involves running the last 10–15 minutes of a longer run uphill or over rolling hills. This is good practice of pushing the effort when you are fatigued, which will happen on race day.
The more frequent you can include hills into your training, the less intimidating they will feel on race day. Start gradual, stay consistent, and conquer those hill repeats! If you have any questions about hill training, please call FFL.
Fit For Life Physical Therapy cares for people of all activity levels - to help prevent, recover from, or rehabilitate sports & orthopedic injuries. We are proud to move people every day.
Please visit our website https://www.fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com/, email us at info@fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com, or call or text us at any of the phone numbers for our three convenient locations inside Fleet Feet/FrontRunner stores:
Polaris: 1270 East Powell Road Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 ~ 614-981-2065
Upper Arlington: 1344 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43221 ~ 614-981-1979
New Albany: 5792 North Hamilton Road, Columbus, Ohio 43230 ~ 614-581-7441
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