Preparing for Downhill Running, Walking, or Hiking
Running, hiking, or walking downhill (or down a set of stairs) entails multiple eccentric muscle contractions. Eccentric muscle contractions are defined as lengthening muscle contractions. While concentric muscle contraction involves your muscles getting shorter, eccentric contractions involve your muscles getting longer. To illustrate, imagine doing a standing biceps curl exercise. The shortening of your biceps muscle (concentric) is what causes your forearm and hands to move/lift the weight. The lengthening of your biceps (eccentric) is what returns the weight and your forearms to the starting position.
Three noteworthy elements of eccentric movement (running/walking downhill or lowering a weight):
Eccentric contractions are a great way to get stronger.
Eccentric muscle contractions are less demanding for the metabolic and cardiovascular systems. Thus, we can work our muscle harder without stressing the rest of our physiology to the same degree. This introduces broad applicability to eccentric training.
Eccentric contractions cause a lot of muscle soreness – especially when we are new to them.
Hypothetically (see note below):
You start at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and hike to the top. Your heart rate will be elevated, you’ll be out of breath, and your legs will be burning. But the next day, your legs won’t be sore. Why? Because you did repeat concentric contractions.
You start at the top of the Grand Canyon and hike to the bottom. You cover ground markedly faster, your heart rate is barely elevated, and you aren’t out of breath. But the next day (and probably the next three days), your calves are so sore you can barely walk. Why? Hiking down the canyon involved repeated eccentric contractions and this creates pronounced soreness.
If you are training for a big hike or perhaps a marathon with a downhill component (such as the Boston Marathon), include eccentric strength training in your prep.
Here are a few examples (using leg extension, but these can be applied to a variety of exercises):
Lift the weight with both legs for 2 seconds, and then remove one leg and have the other leg lower the weight slowly for 8 seconds. Lift again with both and repeat with the other leg.
Lift a very heavy weight for 2 seconds, and then lower it slowly over a 60-second count.
Have your trainer or training partner lift the weight for you and then you lower it for 10 seconds. In this case, you are only doing the eccentric portion.
When you reach muscle failure, your trainer or training partner can lift the weight for you and have you lower it for 10, 20, or 30 seconds.
Take Action: Include eccentric training before your next hike or road race with a significant downhill component.
Note: As far as I know, it’s impossible to get to the bottom of the Grand Canyon without hiking down, so my example isn’t plausible
Final Note: Every Olympic Marathoner who ran in Paris would have been wise to follow the above approach to prepare for the aggressive downhill component of that course.
