4 ways to master the uphill

4 Ways to Master the Uphill

Planning to go uphill? But are you physically and mentally equipped to take on the challenge? If not, here are some tips that will guide you on mastering the uphill.

Small Steps. Taking smaller steps uphill not only reduces the effort required to get your knee high; it stops wear on your hip flexors, or iliopsoas –the muscles that rundown the front of your hips and thighs and engage with every step. Inclines places train on these muscles as you are forcing them to lift higher and bend at a sharper angle with each step. Those with tight hip flexors will suffer more from the irritation this uphill action can cause. To determine whether this is you, lie flat on the ground and draw your right knee up towards your chest; if your left leg leaves the ground as you do this, you probably have tight hip flexors.

Go Slow. Ever heard the fable of the rabbit and the turtle? Experienced hillwalkers don’t ascend slowly because they’re old; they do it because they know that this is the way to endure a big a scent. Many a sprightly newbie has eagerly tried to blitz up the lower stages of a hill climb, only to collapse halfway up.

Settle on a much slower pace from the get-go (a good rule of thumb is to adopt what you consider a sensibly slow pace, then halve it) and you’re much less likely to hit any physical limits on the way up. It also gives you time to enjoy the view, plan your path and generally be a calm, collected little soul–which is why many professionals call it the ‘guide’s pace’. On Kilimanjaro, the Swahili term ‘pole-pole’ – literally ‘slowly, slowly’– has become a mantra for trekkers.

Increase Ascents. It sounds obvious, but the way to get better in the long term is to push yourself in the short term. This is simply training. Tolerance is a big deal when it comes to climbing: the more you do it, the more muscle you build, and the more you increase your stamina. Seek out a scent to build into your route, increasing it a little extra each time you go out, and you’ll find your tolerance of a scent ramping up.

Enlist Help. Trekking poles are perhaps more often utilized on downhill stretches due to their propensity for lessening impact on the knees; but consider the reason why they lessen impact on the knees and you begin to see their virtue for any terrain, especially if you’re carrying a heavy pack. You can demonstrate this at home, with a pair of poles and some bathroom scales. Standing on the scales, lightly place the tips of the poles either side of you as you would if standing on a hill. By applying the tiniest bit of pressure, you’ll immediately see a couple of stone come off your weight. With even more weight than that dropping off every step of a walk when using trekking poles in anger, it’s not difficult to see the benefit.

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