The Best Strength Training Tips for Hill Running: Conquer Uphills and Control Downhills with Ease

It’s no secret that running Hills is HARD! Strength training for hill running is essential for both enhancing performance and preventing injuries, as uphill and downhill running place different demands on the body to maintain form and efficiency. Uphill running requires greater power output, a higher cadence, and increased engagement of the hip flexors and Achilles tendons, while downhill running places more stress on the quads and knees, often leading to overstriding and imbalances. To better prepare your body for these challenges, this article presents exercises that can improve muscle endurance, coordination, and control. By incorporating exercises focused on concentric strength for uphills and eccentric strength for downhills, along with specific hill workouts and posture training, you can build more resilience and confidence in your running form, ensuring you tackle both climbs and descents with ease.

Strength Training for Hill Running is Based on Separate Needs

Running uphill vs. downhill requires your body to move and access power in different ways, making strength training for hill running vital. Running uphill is obviously harder from a cardiovascular standpoint. We can work on making it easier by making improvements to our overall cardiovascular fitness and increasing our exposure to hills (I’ll share some of my favorite hill workouts below).

But beyond that, BOTH uphill and downhill running can be hard physically for different reasons.

Let’s compare them:

With uphill running you typically have:

• A higher cadence
• Shorter stride length
• Higher power demand and a greater propulsive force required
• Greater forward lean in your torso and hip extension range
• Increased demand on hip flexors
• Increased demand on the Achilles

With downhill running you typically have:

• A lower cadence
• Longer stride length
• Increased landing forces
• Increased eccentric demands (especially of the quads)
• A tendency toward overstriding and open scissor posture (especially if you’re not confident in the landing). This is when you’re leaning your torso back from the top to slow down. Losing that stack can also contribute to pelvic floor symptoms.
• The possibility to place more demand on the knees (to what degree depends on your form; it will be more so with that lean back)

I find that downhill running is the hardest for most of my athletes (though this is likely skewed a bit, since I work with a lot of women who come to me because of pelvic floor issues with running). Out of curiosity, the other day I posted to my Instagram stories asking which my followers found harder; 73% said downhill. Then I asked those that said downhill to clarify and got answers like:

• Staying under control and feeling safe but not holding back
• The wanting to lean back and how it changes my foot strike
• Not wanting to pee my pants
• More force hitting the ground
• Quads start to give out

To me, there’s nothing more frustrating than struggling uphill because your heart is pounding and you can’t breathe but then not being able to open up or relax on the downhill because you aren’t confident in how your body handles those forces - lower limb or back pain, pelvic floor symptoms, etc. I know because I’ve been there!

Here’s the good news: we can purposefully train for both! We can train to get stronger and more fit for the uphills and stronger and more confident on the downhills.

How to Incorporate Strength Training for Hill Running

Below are some pointers, many with links to some of my other related articles and resources.

How to better prepare your body for uphill running:

• Practice hill repeats (some of my favorite hill workouts are below) with our other purposefully paced workouts for improving cardiovascular fitness.
• Concentric strength work (think moving heavy weights quickly).
• Work on pelvis position (for improved hip flexor range of motion) and hip flexor strength. Way more on this connection between pelvis position and hip flexor strength here.
• Build tolerance to demand on the Achilles with plyometrics (slowly introduce volume over time).

How to better prepare your body for downhill running:

• Work on eccentric/yielding strength (think moving slowly with gravity or “catching” your body in/around mid range of hip flexion). More coming on this next week!
• Work on your orientation/stack your ribs over your pelvis to help load efficiently through your core with strength instead of that pulling back from the top that can lead to that overstriding.
• If pelvic floor symptoms are holding you back, work on the 7 Fundamental for a Responsive Pelvic Floor.
• Use a wide arm swing to slow you down if/when needed instead of pulling back from the top.

This last point about arm swing is for any time you feel like you need to slow down your descent without changing into that lean back, breaking posture. If you widen your arm swing out to the sides you can slow yourself down without losing that stack.

You can see this difference in the image above. On the left, I’m leaning back to break, which is creating more of that open scissor and overstriding pattern. On the right, I’m swinging my arms out wide to help slow my momentum, while staying stacked with my foot landing closer into my center of mass.

My Favorite Hill Workouts

Strength training for hill running doesn’t necessarily mean more time in the weight room. Below are some of my favorite hill workouts for your next run. 

Hill Repeats for Better Form

• Complete an EASY 2-4 mile run.
• Walk for a minute or two to catch your breath.
• Start with 5-6 repeats (work your way up to 10 or even 20) up a hill with a 5-15% grade - Focus on form over pace, swing your arms (strong mini punches), keeping a nice long forward lean from the ankles instead of hinging into the hill from your hips. Don’t run just on your toes.
• Walk downhill until you are fully recovered.
• Don’t push past fatigue, the last should feel just as springy as the first.

Hill Repeats to Crush a Hilly Course

• Warm up for 1 EASY mile
• Then do 6-8 hill repeats at RPE 7 up a hill approximately 1/10 of a mile long with a 5-8% grade - Focus on keeping a nice long forward lean from the ankles instead of hinging into the hill from your hips. Don’t run just on your toes. Walk or jog downhill for the recovery. 
• Finish with 1 EASY mile.

If you want to take this one up a notch, after the hill repeats do the following instead: ½ mile easy to recover, followed by 1 mile at ST (RPE 6), finish with a 5-10 minute walk.

Rolling Hills Tempo for Practicing Pacing and Confidence with Both Up and Downhill

• Find somewhere with rolling hills (3-5% incline).
• Perform a standard tempo workout:
• Run 1 EASY mile
• Run X* miles at tempo pace
• Run 1 mile (1.5k) EASY.
• Pace the hills by feel RPE 3 or 6/7, so that the average of that segment is the target pace.
• Uphill will be a bit slower to keep the RPE the same (if it’s a steep hill this might even be walking).
• Downhill will be a bit faster to keep the RPE the same.

Here’s to feeling stronger and more in control on every hill—happy running!

Next On Your Reading List:

Glutes And Pelvic Floor, How to Load Better, Improve Rotation, Run with Less Pain

Stretch Or Strengthen! What are your Hip Flexors Asking You to do

Running Towards Your Potential: The Women's Running Accademy