muscles and hills (Read 1544 times)

Running up hills is awesome!  It does use your muscles a little differently, but the increased work load is what makes your cardiovascular system have to step up a notch, which may be the pressure you're feeling in your lungs.  You may adjust your pace slightly as you head up an incline, just back off a little bit until you crest the top and then work your way back up to your normal pace.  Hills are 'speed work' in disguise, so even though you are slowing down slightly, you're increasing your body's workload and getting a little extra out of your work out.

I prefer runs with hills. I do have an advantage being only 135#'s but I also like the change of muscle groups used in running up hills. I feel like I use more "torque" when running up hills. More upper ham and glute. Gives my quads and calves a break. I'm 33 and come from a sprinter/jumper, cycling background. Yes, also like climbing hill on my bike.

so when we run up a hill it is harder but is simply because we have to carry our body weight up the incline, or is it the result of the muscle groups we use to go uphill being weaker due to their getting less work when we are on flat ground the majority of the time. Does it actually create more pressure on our lungs in and of itself, or is the lung pressure more a result of the muscles used for going uphill not being able to utilize oxygen because we normally don't ask them too and therefore they start needing more fast?

 

AKTrail is right - running uphill requires you to lift your body weight vertically more, so you are doing more work.  Your muscles have to produce more power to run uphill than on flat ground (at the same pace).  To produce more power, more muscle fibers are recruited.  These additional active muscle fibers need more oxygen so a greater load is placed on your heart, lungs, and circulatory system. 

 

The additional muscle fibers used when running uphill may or may not be trained.  It depends on your training program and whether it stresses those particular muscle fibers or not.

Hills make me happy.  That's really all I have to contribute to this thread.

 

The decline works for me. That incline, not so much.

 

I would think that the coordination of muscles, ligaments and tendons would be different and need to be practiced to gain effecient coordination ... even if you had the muscle fiber power - But that is an uneducated assumption.

 

 

You are right.  Training specificity certainly applies.  Even if the specific muscle fibers are trained via other methods, they won't be as efficient running hills if they aren't trained specifically via running hills.

 

I would think that the coordination of muscles, ligaments and tendons would be different and need to be practiced to gain effecient coordination ... even if you had the muscle fiber power - But that is an uneducated assumption.

 Another thing that relates to this in big long hills is simply that you may need to run a lot more slowly. If you rarely run at that speed, your gait may be less efficient and feel uncoordinated.

Since I live in Florida and I do not have the ability to add hill workouts to my training, does anyone have any suggestions to an alternative, weight training (squats)?

 

When I want to run hills, but don't want to drive to a hilly area, I do a treadmill incline workout. I know lots of guys that do that, even ultra guys