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Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Why Training for Downhill Hiking Matters Most for Happy Knees
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. What's up you guys? Welcome back to the show. My name is Brady. I am your host. Today we're getting into a topic that I'm very passionate about when it comes to actually training physically for your hikes, not only to feel stronger while you're doing them, but also to prevent pain, because a lot of times we can feel good during parts of the hike or even the whole hike, and then maybe at the very end, we feel like our body is falling apart, or the next day we are in so much pain. And so part of what I work on with my clients who have big hiking pursuits, is the type of training that will not only make hiking feel easier from a cardiovascular and a strength standpoint, but actually preparing their joints and their body to handle just the demands that hiking will put on it so that there's less overall pain throughout the entire hike and afterwards. Okay. So we're going to be talking about why training for downhill hiking matters so much. If you have knees that tend to be a little bit in pain while or after hiking. And even if you aren't experiencing that now, that's not to say that that will always be the case, especially if you do not start training properly and you do a lot of big ascents and descents while you're hiking. So if you've ever finished a hike feeling really strong, maybe on the uphill, which tends to be the part that people fear the most, but then your knees are screaming on the way down, then this one is for you. Because a lot of hikers assume that the uphill is going to be the hard part because it's burning more calories, it takes more out of us, right? It raises your heart rate. It feels more physically demanding. However, when it comes to knee discomfort, muscle soreness, and just long term hiking enjoyment, the downhill is where a lot of people experience challenges, so the happiest hikers aren't necessarily going to be the strongest. They're the ones whose bodies are prepared for both the ascent and the descent. Okay. Before we dive into things. If you are a female hiker trying to figure out how to train for stronger and less painful hikes, trying to piece it all together yourself and really just wanting a plan that fits your life to help you reach these goals. And you're wanting to lose 10 to £30 for good. We do have five spots opening up in my Mountain Metabolic coaching program this summer, so if you want to apply to get a spot, then you can do that at the link in the show notes, and you'll get $100 off of coaching just for mentioning that you are a listener of the podcast. Okay, let's dive in. So why downhill feels so much harder on the knees. So a lot of this comes down to the forces involved. So when hiking downhill, every step is kind of acting like a mini braking action. Your body is absorbing that force and it's greater than your own body weight. Okay. So you're going to feel a lot of that force absorption. And over time when you're doing that motion over and over and over again, let's say you're hiking downhill for four plus miles. That is going to start to create some wear and tear on the knees. The steeper the trail, the greater the load will be because you're having to lower yourself down further than just a casual step out in front of you, right? So unlike uphill movement, where the muscles generate force to propel you upward, downhill requires muscles to absorb the force repeatedly. So knees become the central shock absorber if we're looking at the key structures involved here with our knees, you got to think about the quadriceps, patellar tendon, cartilage surfaces and supporting ligaments and connective tissue. So thousands of downhill steps can accumulate substantial stress on these areas. So let's get into kind of the science of what is the most effective way to train for downhill hiking. Um, it's something called eccentric strength. And you will see this on my page if you follow me on Instagram a lot. Talking about eccentric training, my clients have all done a lot of eccentric, focused workouts because it is so, so effective when you are training for downhill. So let's talk about the different types of muscular movements okay. So muscles work in three basic ways. There's either concentric exercises. So that's the shortening. So imagine you're doing like a bicep curl right. That's a concentric movement. Curling the dumbbell from away from you all the way up to your shoulder. So that curl motion is concentric. If you think about the lengthening phase of that movement. So bringing the dumbbell back down into a straightened position where your arm is in a straightened position, again, that is the eccentric phase. So that's the lengthening under load is essentially what you want to think about. And then there's also isometric which is like a holding movement. So you're just holding one position. So another example of eccentric would be like lowering yourself into a chair, going to sit on the toilet, squatting down. Okay, so that lowering phase, that is an eccentric movement. So your quadriceps are working hard while lengthening. That's eccentric. Loading. So why does this matter? Eccentric strength is going to be what improves your shock absorption, reduces fatigue during descents, helps control joint movement, and protects the knees from excessive stress. If you're training your body to do that lowering phase over and over again, then it's not going to feel so painful when you're doing that movement and repetition on the trails. So most recreational exercises train concentric strength way more than eccentric. You see this all the time as a trainer, and that really can do a disservice. Just an overall functionality. Like even if you're not a hiker, you still need to be strong enough to, like, lower yourself down to sit on the toilet and be able to lower yourself down to the ground. Right. Um, with control. So you might be more prepared for the uphill if you're doing a lot of concentric training, but not so much for the lowering under control that happens when you are descending down a trail. So why does traditional hiking fitness often miss the point? And maybe you're not even training for hiking right now and is something that you're wanting to get into and you're like, I don't even know where to start. Some common mistakes, though, that I see is only training for cardio. So most hikers I see are really only doing like steady state cardio. They're doing long walks, they're hiking, they're doing StairMaster, they're doing uphill type of training. Right. That's very, very helpful from a cardiovascular aerobic preparation and preparing you for those ascents. But they're not replicating the downhill demands that the body will experience. So there's a mismatch there. Um, so you can have excellent cardiovascular fitness, strong lungs, good endurance, but still struggle with descending because that is not going to prepare you for what you're going to be doing. Okay. So what are the best ways to actually train for downhill hiking? Let's get into just like the nitty gritty, the practical. We talked about the eccentric training. And that is a really important principle to follow. But let's talk about practical application, because if you're like, I have no clue what to actually do in my program, this will hopefully help give you some tips to start out. So first of all, not just focusing on the stepping up movements. A lot of people will just do step ups or StairMaster where they're stepping, stepping, stepping. You need to be doing step down exercises too. These are very simple but very effective. So you're going to start up on a step or on a box in a gym. And you're going to do a single leg lower with control. Now, that doesn't mean you're just dropping your leg down and pushing off your goals, that all of your weight is going to remain in your top leg as you sit back. Kind of like you're doing a single leg squat, right? You're sitting back, keeping your heel down in that top leg and trying to lightly tap the bottom foot. That way, you're not just relying on momentum, but you really are getting that lowering with control that you will be doing a million times over if you do a long descent. Okay. Also things like decline walking. A lot of people don't think about doing decline walking, but this can really be helpful if you have the means to do it. So obviously you would need like a treadmill that can do some sort of a decline. Um, also things like eccentric squats or single leg pistol squats. So this would be really focusing on the slow lowering phase of the squat. Instead of just going down and pushing back up right away, you're taking your time 3 to 5 seconds on the lowering phase. Maybe pause at the bottom and then go back up. Um, I love that for just standard squats. So that can be barbell squats. That can be dumbbell or kettlebell squats. But it can also be things like pistol squats where you're lowering down to a box and you're really relying on that one leg. If you are trying to get more advanced at this stuff, that is definitely the next progression from a standard squat. And then loaded descents. So that would be like doing these things under load. So either you're adding dumbbells or you're wearing a pack and loading that up. You can do these things in the gym right. It might you might feel a little silly. I've done it before. But you can definitely do these things in a gym. Or you can do them at home, or you can do them actually out on the trail. So actually practicing going on shorter downhill distances with a pack on your back, um, really you're going to want to do a lot of single leg eccentric strength. Okay. So that is going to be absolutely essential because downhill hiking is basically just doing thousands of single leg type of movements. Um, so you're going to want to do things like split squats, reverse lunges, forward lunges, Bulgarians, butt squads, single leg deadlifts, things like that. A lot of different step down and step up variations. Um, and the slower and more controlled type of on on downhill movements, you can do so when you're in the descent of those exercises, the slower you can go Really practicing good control instead of rushing through the movement, practicing your balance, practicing your stability, practicing being able to slowly descend that is going to absolutely make all the difference in your knee health. So just think about you don't want to wait for a big hiking trip to expose your knees to downhill stress. Okay, introduce that stress gradually and consistently. That's why I don't all of a sudden, one month or two months before summer, be like, oh crap, I need to start implementing these things for my hikes. I implement them all year. Literally. My training all year round is going to have exercises that will keep my knees healthy on long descents, keep my legs strong for the ascents, keep my aerobic capacity up right. I'm doing these things year round and it doesn't have to be a full time job. There's just little things that you can implement that will make a massive difference, so that you don't have to scramble to try to get your body ready. If all of a sudden you find out that you're doing a really hard hike in three weeks. Okay. So our trekking pole is helpful. This is something to consider. They're helpful, but they're not going to magically take away all of that stress on the joints. Okay, so the benefits of trekking poles that they can help improve balance, reduce the perceived effort. Right. You feel like, oh my gosh, I have a little bit of assistance. It's almost like a mental thing. They do redistribute some of the load and they can also increase confidence on steep or uneven terrain. So here's an important caveat though. Poles are not a substitute for strength. You cannot rely on them fully or put all of your body weight into your poles. So think of them as a helpful tool, but not an insurance policy. So the strongest protection is still going to come from having a body that's prepared to absorb the force of the downhill movement. So thinking long term, when it comes to knee health, you don't want to just assume, oh, my knees are hurting because I'm getting older. A more useful question is, have my knees been prepared for the demands that I'm placing on them? Because honestly, I have seen. After living in Colorado now for ten years, I have seen people in their 70s 80s literally even 90s are still summiting massive peaks because they have taken care of their joints there. They've actually maintained muscle and they train accordingly to their outdoor pursuits. Okay, so this doesn't have to be something where it's like, oh, now that I'm in my 30s, 40s, 50s, I'm just doomed. I can't do these things anymore. I promise you, if you start preparing your body the right way, you will feel equipped to do these things. Okay, so adaptation matters. The body adapts remarkably well when exposure is gradual, consistent and progressive. So this is where having a smart plan to get you through. And not just kind of like randomly throwing in a couple exercises that you do once a month, but gradually and consistently doing these things, stronger muscles are going to help distribute loads that would otherwise be concentrated around the knees. Another thing to consider is if you have strong glutes, that will also help take some pressure off of your knees. A lot of times we tend to rely more heavily on the structure of our knees when we don't have the glutes to support us, like on the uphills and things like that. Okay, so overall strength does matter. All right, so if uphill hiking is about fitness, downhill hiking is about durability. Most hikers spend their training time prepping to go up, and the hikers with the happiest and healthiest knees are going to spend at least some of their training time learning how to come down. So this is very, very important. Um, getting to the summit might be the goal, but your knee care is about how you get back down to the trailhead realistically. Okay. So even if you aren't having knee problems now or things feel okay, that doesn't mean that you should ignore this until you start having the pain. So having at least a few exercises in your weekly rotation. Strength exercises to help you prepare not only for the uphill but the downhill will absolutely make all of the difference. So if you want to get my free guide to downhill exercises, you can DM me just the word downhill. Send that to fit underscore for hiking and I'll send that over to you. So you have some visuals of kind of the things that we talked about today. And like I mentioned at the start of the episode, we do have five spots that are going to be opening this summer. So if you are like kind of tired of just trying to piece things together yourself and hope for the best and not have any support or reliable accountability, then this is for you. This is why I created this program, is to help people get through these plateaus, get to the root of why they're not seeing progress, and ultimately stay consistent and see the results that they want to see. It's amazing to me, like how far we can get even just in three months of consistent pursuit of our goals. And oftentimes we just get in our own way by making these excuses of like, I don't have time, I don't have money. I just can't right now. I'll do it later. I'll do it eventually. And that day never really comes unless you decide, okay, I'm just going to do it now, right soon. I feel like is the worst word when it when you're working in the fitness industry, I hear so many people say, yeah, I'll figure it out soon. I'll do it soon and soon. It never comes until you just decide that you're sick of your own excuses. Um, so if you are ready to take some action, if you've been listening to the show and things are resonating with you, then let's have a chat. You can apply at the link in the show notes. All right, you guys, thank you for tuning in for this short and sweet episode. I hope it is helpful as you prepare for summer hiking adventures and getting prepped for downhill hiking. I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy Trails.