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The Proper Technique for Running Uphill and Downhill
Last week we looked at some of thescience about running up and down hills. This week, we’ll be returning to the subject of hills but with a more biomechanically-oriented perspective. It’s important not only to know when and why you should train on uphills and downhills, but also how to go about running hills.
A lot of runners just don’t run with proper form when they go uphill or downhill. What constitutes “good” hill running form is fairly easily to understand once we review a few very basic truths about running uphill and downhill.
How to run uphill
When running up a hill, you’ve got to do extra work to overcome gravity. This requires your body to recruit more muscles in your legs to overcome the force of gravity and carry you up the slope.
Speaking of the incline, the fact that the ground is slanted also alters your footstrike, forcing you to transition to more of a mid/forefoot-striking style and increasing the forces going through your calves and ankles. This is ultimately a good thing when it comes to performance, as it allows you to get more “rebound” from the ground. Some energy from the impact is stored in your calf muscles and is then released again when you straighten your leg and drive off the ground.
Don’t lean forward at the waist
Most runners’ natural reaction when they start running up a hill is to lean into it, usually by bending forward at the waist. While it is true that some degree of forward lean is necessary when running up a hill, a lot of people lean much too far forward. This negatively impacts your uphill running ability in several ways.
- First, leaning forward inhibits your ability to flex your hips and drive your knee up during the “swing” phase of your gait. You can prove this to yourself right now by standing up straight and lifting your knee towards your chest using your hip flexors, then attempting to do the same thing if you bend forward at the waist. Note the small but perceptible increase in difficulty. An excessive forward lean shortens your hip flexor’s range of motion, hurting your efficiency.
- Additionally, leaning too far forward inhibits your ability to produce a powerful “toe-off” during the “drive” phase of your gait. To push off the ground and take advantage of the additional energy stored in your calf muscles, you need to fully extend your leg straight behind you, which is achieved most effectively when your upper body is not slanted forward. When you “stand tall” when running up a hill, it makes it easier for your glutes to extend your leg behind you.
- Finally, a forward lean also throws your body off-balance by moving your center of gravity too far forward. Without getting too into the nitty-gritty, this also makes it harder for your glutes to drive your leg backwards by increasing the leverage they have to overcome. The positioning of your center of gravity will also come into play when it comes to running downhill, so don’t forget about it.
Helpful mental cues to maintain proper form
Although you will have a noticeable forward lean when running uphill, it’s helpful 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 crested a hill, take care not to slouch over, since that will wreak havoc on your efficiency on the flats, too.
How to run downhill
When it comes to running downhill, the problem is usually the opposite of running uphill: too much backward lean. Shifting your weight backwards when running downhill is a normal reaction, since it slows you down. Much like the incline of an uphill shifts your footstrike forward, a downhill forces your foot to strike the ground more towards your heel. This by itself increases braking forces, and a backwards lean magnifies this effect.
If you want to slow down, leaning backwards is the right choice. But since a downhill allows you a “free” increase in running speed (since gravity is giving back all the energy you spent going up the hill), you generally want to take advantage of this.
When you lean back, you throw your center of gravity behind your body, requiring you to wait until your feet have passed it to start generating force again.
You also have to weigh the cost of the increased braking forces from leaning back against the increased impact forces of running faster down the hill by leaning “into” the downhill. While there haven’t been any scientific studies on this, I suspect that it’s better to lean into a hill, since at least in that case your running mechanics are not as different.
It’s also important not to lean too far forward on downhills, lest you find yourself careening out of control. As your speed increases, you’ll need to quicken your cadence to keep your feet underneath you. You’ll need to strike a balance between efficiently using the speed from the downhill and running so fast that it upsets your pacing.
Short downhills aren’t usually a problem in this regard, but long, gradual downhills can lull a runner into a pace that’s too aggressive, especially early on in a race. Remember, you can always lean back if you are running down a particularly steep downhill and need to back off. Once you’ve reached the end of the downhill, you can still “coast” for a bit on the speed boost you’ve gained, but do take care to slow to your normal effort eventually.
Final tips for running hills
Efficiently running hills boils down to understanding what you’re up against. On the way up a hill, you are battling against gravity, so you should “stand tall” with a slight forward lean, drive your legs back and lift your knees up to take advantage of the additional power generated at your ankle, and keep your torso centered over your pelvis.
On the way down a hill, gravity is helping you along, so don’t be afraid to “lean and go” down a hill, again keeping your torso centered over your pelvis (relative to the slope of the hill).Quicken up your stride to stay balanced, and maintain an even effort, despite the fact that your pace is increasing going down a hill. Mental cues like “stand tall,” “drive your hips,” and “lean and go” are great for hill running, since they serve as quick reminders to fix up your running form, especially when you are tired.
How to Run Hills
Whether you encounter hills in training or on the race course, fighting gravity can quickly become an epic struggle both mentally and physically. However, running hills doesn’t have to ruin your workout or race. By maintaining proper form and executing a smart strategy as you run up and over them, you can actually turn hill running into a strength you can capitalize on.
In this article, I am going to teach you some simple form tweaks that can save you energy and help you breeze up and over hills with greater ease. Likewise, I’ll share the secret to attacking hills during a race so you can maintain pace and stay on track to reach your goal time.
Running Form on Hills
Running uphill and downhill require some slight tweaks to your form to maximize your power and efficiency as well as provide you much needed oxygen. Many magazines and training partners will give you pointers on proper form, but it’s important you are able to properly visualize the tips, or you could end up doing more harm than good. Here are my form suggestions and a visual for how to implement them.
Running uphill
(1) The most critical element is that you keep your chest up and open. The most common advice you might have received is to “lean into the hill”. Unfortunately, this causes many runners to hunch at the waist to lean forward. This constricts your airway and makes it harder to breathe deeply. You do need to lean forward, but make sure you lean at the hips, not the waist.
(2) Keep your head and eyes up, looking about 30 meters in front of you. Dropping your head restricts how much oxygen you can take in and will cause you to slouch. Likewise, drive your arms straight forward and back and use them as pistons. Your arms should form a 90-degree angle at the elbow, and swing straight back and forth, not across your body.
(3) Focus on driving your knee off the hill, not into the hill like you might do if you maintained your normal knee drive. Work on landing on the ball of your foot to spring up the hill.
(4) Plantar flex your foot at the ankle – plantar flexion is when you point your toes towards the ground. Think of yourself exploding off your ankle and using that last bit of power to propel you up the hill with minimal energy expenditure. Focusing on plantar flexion can save you a lot of energy and really help you get up the hill faster and with less energy.
Downhill running
(1) Just like when running uphill, you want to have a slight lean forward at the hips to take advantage of the downhill. Don’t overdo the lean, you just need a slight tilt to benefit from gravity.
Keep your arms relaxed and only slightly moving forward and back. Don’t flail them to the sides, this will waste energy. Likewise, keep your head up and your eyes looking forward.
(2) You want to land with your foot either right beneath your torso or just slightly in front of your pelvis, depending on the grade of the downhill (the steeper the grade, the more likely your foot is to land out in front). Extending your leg too much will cause you to land on your heel, which will act like a breaking motion. Focus on landing towards your midfoot to maintain speed while staying in control.
(3) Your stride length should naturally be extended when running downhill. However, you shouldn’t need to consciously increase your stride length. The pace and the grade of the hill will do this naturally for you.
Pacing During Hilly Races
Tackling hills during races or even important workouts can be daunting. It’s easy to ruin your race by wasting too much energy grinding up a hill or lose big chunks of time by slowing the pace too much. To handle hills effectively in races, learn to run up and down them byeffort, not pace.
When you approach the base of a hill, you should already have a good feel for the effort you’re maintaining to keep the pace you need. Meaning, if you’re running goal race pace already, you should already know what that pace “feels” like. So, when you begin to ascend up the hill,focus on maintaining the same effort. Obviously, your actual pace will slow, even though you’re running the same effort (don’t worry, you’ll make it up on the downhill). The exact time you’ll “lose” on the uphill will be a function of the steepness and length of the hill.
Now, when you crest the hill and begin the descent, simply maintain the same effort that it took to run your goal pace before you began up the hill. Contrary to running uphill, this effort will now make your actual pace faster than goal pace. For the most part, this will largely negate most of the time you lost going uphill and you’ll reach the bottom still on target.
The secret behind this strategy is that by maintaining a consistent effort, you won’t lose crucial energy pushing either up or down the hill. Therefore, instead of becoming an energy sapping obstacle, the hill will be just another bump in the road and you’ll be able to maintain your pace and stay strong over the remainder of the course.
By improving your form and implementing this simple strategy, you’ll be able to conquer hills of all lengths and inclines. If you have any hill running secrets you would like to share, please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments section, we would love to hear from you.
Lose 5kg For Good!
on 18 June 2012 Comments { 0 }
Most diets fail, says Dr Enette Larson-Meyer, a trail runner who heads the University of Wyoming nutrition and exercise lab.She does say that runners have half the weight-control puzzle solved by exercising regularly – but that the other half, eating less, is even more critical. Damn.
‘There’s no magic bullet,’ says the sports nutritionist, instead offering a barrage of bite-size tips (below).
Adopting even a few can help you shed kilograms, and if you stick with them, you won’t gain the weight back. But she cautions against overreaching: ‘Don’t set a goal like becoming as thin as a supermodel. That’s unrealistic and can even hurt your running, because below a certain weight you’ll lose lean muscle and become more susceptible to injury or illness.’
It would be nice if you could lose weight by simply running more. But most of us neutralise the 400 or so kilojoules we burn per kilometre by eating more.
‘We reward ourselves by thinking, I’ve earned it,’ Larson-Meyer says.
The key is to reduce kilojoule intake gradually so that you’re dropping just 250 to 500 grams per week. ‘That’s consuming 1 000 to 2 000 fewer kilojoules a day, which isn’t a lot,’ she says. ‘Don’t think of it asa diet, because you can’t diet forever. Think of it as permanent changes to eating habits that you can maintain.’
Larson-Meyer’s advice:
Include protein in every meal.A 2010 study found that athletes were more successful losing weight with a diet that was 35% protein than one that was 15% protein. ‘Protein preserves lean muscle mass and controls appetite,’ she says. But it should be lean, such as poultry, fish, lean meats, beans, lentils, soy food, and yoghurt.
Eat a meal within an hour after running. ’This aids recovery and makes high-fat snacks less tempting.’
Don’t skip meals. Doing so almost always leads to excessive snacking.
Stay hydrated before, during, and after running. ‘Some people perceive thirst as hunger, and water dampens hunger.’ Don’t bother with sports beverages except during intense workouts or on runs of 90 minutes or more because you won’t need the extra carbs.
Eat food, don’t drink it. Guzzling a 250ml glass of apple juice, for example, won’t fill you up as much as a large apple. The real deal also has five more grams of fibre and takes longer to finish.
Run from fast food. A database of people who have lost significant weight and kept it off for at least a year shows that most consume only one fast food meal per week.
Some ‘duh’ tips you’ve heard that bear repeating: Eat only when you’re hungry. Eat smaller portions at meals.
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