Uphill Treadmill
An uphill treadmill session is running or walking at a treadmill grade, either at an easy effort or in repeats centered on threshold. It adds aerobic time with softer landings than the same time on the flat. This guide covers what the session is, why it is used, how to pick the grade, and how to run the easy and threshold versions. This is general training guidance.
What it is
An uphill treadmill session is running or walking at a treadmill grade, in one of two forms. The easy form is sustained time at a conversational effort, as an optional second run or in place of cross-training. The hard form is repeats centered on threshold effort. Both are aerobic work that you run by effort, and both supplement your specific running without replacing it. Whether easy sessions like this build climbing strength beyond what flat running does has not been tested.
Why use it
A 2017 review found that running uphill costs more energy per meter than running on the level, and that the cost rises in a straight line with the grade1. That is why you run the session by effort and not by pace: the same effort gives a slower pace on a slope.
Landings are softer. In a 2020 study of 19 adults on an instrumented treadmill, at the steepest uphill slope (10 degrees, about 18%) and the fastest speed, the average loading rate of the force into the treadmill was 28% lower than on the level at the same speed2. Outdoors, long aerobic work is limited by the pounding of impact, and a slope gives you aerobic time without as much of it. Whether that matters over weeks of sessions has not been tested.
Trail and ultra runners also use longer sessions of 60 to 120 minutes of steady hiking at a steep grade as supplemental durability work. The guide on ultra training covers how that fits a week.
Pick the grade
Any uphill works, and a steeper grade is not better in itself. About 6% suits most road and track runners, and 4% is fine. 15% is the cap, used for walk-run sessions and by trail runners preparing for steep climbs. Pick the grade that lets you hold the effort you intend.
How to do it
Warm up on the flat or a gentle grade, then set the grade and settle into the effort:
- Easy version: a conversational effort, so you can talk in full sentences throughout, for 30 to 45 minutes, building up gradually if it is new to you. If you cannot talk, lower the grade or walk.
- Threshold version: start with 5 x 5 minutes or 6 x 5 minutes and build, with the effort centered on threshold, the effort you could hold for about an hour in a race. That is a hard session and counts as one of the week's two. The guides on tempo and threshold runs and hill repeats cover the effort and the flat and outdoor versions.
- Handrail: hold it only for balance, not to lean on and offload your legs.
Safety
Keep the session easy, and do not let a steep grade turn it into a hard one unless that is the plan. Hold the rail only for balance, step off carefully because a steep belt can be awkward to dismount, and skip or shorten the session if your legs are already tired from the day's main session.
Sources
- Vernillo G, Giandolini M, Edwards WB, Morin JB, Samozino P, Horvais N, Millet GY. Biomechanics and Physiology of Uphill and Downhill Running. Sports Medicine 47(4):615-629 (2017). (Narrative review of the literature on graded running) ↩
- Vernillo G, Martinez A, Baggaley M, Khassetarash A, Giandolini M, Horvais N, Edwards WB, Millet GY. Biomechanics of graded running: Part I - Stride parameters, external forces, muscle activations. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 30(9):1632-1641 (2020). (19 adults running on an instrumented treadmill at three speeds and 0, 5 and 10 degrees up and down) ↩
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