hill training - I Love Bicycling

Hill climbs are definitely a love/hate relationship for most cyclists. We know how good they are for us, and we know how good it feels to finally reach the top and cruise through that descent – but man do they suck. We’re here to give you some tips on how to make hills the strongest part of your ride, and how you can train more efficiently and endure less suffering in the process.

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Classic Cycling Hill Climb Training

If you’re a beginner cyclist, simply experimenting with different routes and building a general foundation of fitness is your first step towards developing any level of hill climbing prowess. There is simply no point in exhausting yourself with specific climbing workouts when you haven’t yet acclimated to general volume on the bike. So that’s step number one.

Step number two is doing repeated hill climbs on the bike. This type of training is definitely effective at developing leg strength and endurance…to an extent. You have to be careful about repeating the same gradients and hill distances (for example, ones in your general area), because you are going to adapt quite quickly if you already have some level of cycling fitness.

Try to vary the routes you take and incorporate ones that involve more, longer, and different gradient-type hills. Experiment with sessions where you isolate the hill climbing component, and spend time doing 5, 10, even 20 climbs on the same hill (depending on the length and severity of it, of course). Wrestle your way to the top, recover on the way down. Repeat.

There are ceilings to this type of training, as there are with all types of training. You are going to find limits not only physically but geographically. The methods we’ve just discussed are always something that should be regularly rotated into your programming, but let’s now take a look at some more conventional techniques that will greatly supplement your time on the bike.

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High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

In recent years, studies from the running world have shown the efficacy of doing short, high-intensity, sprint-type workouts for improved performance in the longer distances. This is great news for cyclists, and even more specifically for the benefit of hill training on the bike. Let’s briefly explore how we can use this information to our advantage.

A HIIT workout using hill climbs will differ from the aforementioned hill climb repeats in the following way. You’ll want to keep the hill short and steep, and you’ll want to attack the climb with as much effort and intensity as you can manage, as opposed to just steadily making your way up. Descend and take whatever other necessary rest period, then repeat.

This form of training allows you to significantly reduce the amount of time you’re actually riding, but still get a massive benefit in the form of improved maximal oxygen uptake, cycling economy, and other physiological adaptations both muscular and metabolic. Let’s now extrapolate this method to an even more intense variation that you can do off the bike.

Sled Training for Hill Climbing Strength

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Pushing and pulling a weighted sled is enormously transferable to cycling, mainly because of the lack of eccentric contractions in both. Refer to these brief definitions:

Concentric Contraction

The concentric phase of muscular contraction is when the muscle is shortening, thereby pulling on the tendon and moving the joint. This is typically seen in the lifting part of the exercise. For example, when you push yourself out of the bottom of a squat, your quadriceps (thigh) muscles are working concentrically to extend the knee joint.

Eccentric contraction

The eccentric phase of muscular contraction is when the muscle is lengthening under load, storing energy in the tissues and resisting the force that is being applied to it. This is often seen as the lowering part of a lift. In the squat example, when you are lowering yourself down into the bottom, the quadriceps are working eccentrically and resisting the force being applied to them.

In cycling, there are virtually no eccentric contractions, only concentric contractions. You’re never resisting a load under stretch, muscles are either working concentrically or are relaxing and going through a passive stretch. When you push a sled, it’s the same thing. You press your leg into the ground, but as soon as you lift it to take the next step, that leg relaxes.

The benefit of the sled is you can grossly overload the leg drive that you need to push a pedal, which will make those hill climbs feel so much easier by the time you’re doing them. It also gets you off the bike to train in a new and invigorating way, helping to reduce the likelihood of overuse injury. Try different sled pushing and pulling variations in your next workout.

Overall Strength & Conditioning

Similar to the use of a sled, performing separate strength training sessions, mobility, and other injury prevention work while off the bike is going to contribute massively to your hill climbing strength on the bike. By bringing up the weak points that cycling misses, your body will be in a better balance and more able to produce force when the incline gets tough.

Focus on building up your glutes through exercises that forcefully extend the hip, such as hip thrusts, deadlifts, and lunges. Also, having a strong core gives your legs a stable foundation from which to push off of. Challenge your abdominal muscles in various ways by doing exercises that flex the trunk, rotate the torso, lift the legs, and bend your body in all different directions.

Our programming over at Dynamic Cyclist has all the strength and mobility workouts you need to ride pain-free and become a force to reckon with when it comes to hill climbs. Simply press play, follow along, and do your best, no matter where you are. Included in the membership is a BONUS 4 week training plan specifically for mastering hill climbs. Try it out for 7-days free by clicking here.

Note on Mental Strength & Cycling Hill Training

A benefit to isolating hill climbs in your training and focusing specifically on them is learning how to deal with the negative self-talk and self-defeating programming you may or may not have already worked through. Tackling a nasty hill can make for some of your darkest moments while cycling, and learning to conquer that beast is something that usually takes a fair bit of practice.

By incrementally progressing to tougher, longer, and steeper climbs, you will gradually learn the limits of your body, and build confidence in your abilities on the bike (which will transfer over to the rest of your life, as well).

Remember this, you are far more capable than you think, you can always do one more pedal, and the pain will be all but gone just minutes after stopping. So, are you going to quit? Or are you going to keep going? Only you know that answer.

Climbing on a bicycle isn’t supposed to be easy. But why do some cyclists barely break a sweat while others puke their guts out? Why you’re a better climbing cyclist – or not, takes a look at some common issues with the typical climbing cyclist that can make a difference in your ascent.

Pacing is Everything

Pacing makes all the difference for the climbing cyclist. Attacking a hill doesn’t work. Sure you’re fresh at the bottom of the hill, your heart rate is down, and your legs are free of lactic acid. But when you push past a certain point and you still have gravity to overcome, you slow to a crawl, recovery is impossible and staying on the bike is your only objective. Other riders begin to pass you. Failure to pace yourself is probably the biggest reason why other cyclists of your caliber are better climbers than you are.

Genetics and Training

Don’t beat yourself up too much if you struggle on hills. Some of the prominent climbing cyclists — probably the majority of them — are gifted by genetics. Hill climbers tend to be shorter, lighter, and show the highest maximum load with the lowest oxygen consumption. But this doesn’t mean you can’t train yourself to climb hills better or just as efficiently as your shorter, smaller, lighter brothers and sisters.

Power to Weight Ratio

Power to weight ratio is the power required to overcome the gradient at your given weight — while still moving at a reasonable rate. If you weigh less, you have less mass to haul up the hill and therefore require less power to maintain your speed. It might not seem like there is much of a difference in weight between you and some of your fellow climbers. But if you have to push a few extra pounds uphill every time you climb, it can make a significant difference to your fatigue levels by the time you reach the final pull to the top. This is why the best climbers in the world are light and are able to maintain a consistently higher power output relative to their weight.

Frame Size

Smaller frames have a climbing advantage; they’re lighter for one thing. And shorter wheelbases provide better leverage when climbing hills. This is due in part to the ability to get your torso forward on the bike while keeping your body weight above the pedals. The compact design of shorter frames also has a mechanical advantage by keeping the drive-train shorter, and moving power to the back wheel more efficiently. You can gain something on hills — more so on mountain bikes — by using a smaller frame bike. Albeit smaller frames on road bikes can make you less efficient on flat ground.

Gearing Options

A wider range of gearing choices allows a good climbing cyclist to use lower gears to climb more efficiently. For road bikes, if you’re pushing a standard double chainring in front, you’re at a disadvantage to your friends riding a compact double, which has lower gears. Introduce the triple chainring into the equation and you have a road bike that can almost rival a mountain bike on hills. Is it worth it? If your rides are consistently hilly, the triple chainring can help you be the climber you want to be.

Mountain Bike Training

If you’re dead serious about becoming a better climber, take a few tips from mountain bikers. The contemporary mountain bike can climb almost anything. Riding one can help you gain skills that road bikes don’t offer. Add one to your stable, take it out on the trails regularly and the skills and abilities can transfer to your road bike climbing abilities. Additionally, descending on a mountain bike also gives you insight into descending on a road bike.

A Few Tips to Be a Better Climber

Anticipate: Keep an eye on the hill as you approach it. Pace yourself accordingly. Don’t attack the hill, at least from the bottom. Attacking over the top is the better solution if you must attack at some point.
Momentum: Carry momentum from your approach. Drop down through gears quickly and smoothly one at a time while maintaining momentum.
Don’t Stand Up: Staying in the saddle keeps your heart rate down. Standing up can cause you to blow up as it puts more load on your legs resulting in an increased need in oxygen to be delivered. The exception is if you’re a lighter rider and practice it. This article gets into the science of standing versus sitting while climbing.
Save Your Lowest Gear: Drop into your lowest gear only when you’ve slowed to about 5 mph.
Distraction: Keep mashing the pedals. Sometimes climbing a hill is as much a mental battle as a physical one. Try to distract yourself from the pain. Pat yourself on the back when you get to the top. You own this hill.

The Climbing Cyclist

All climbing cyclists get defeated by hills at some point, climbing hills is hard work. Sometimes it’s just too steep or too long. Sometimes you have a bad shift and lose your momentum. Don’t get defeated or demoralized. There’s always tomorrow. The hill isn’t going anywhere.