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I've found a lovely hill that has become my favorite workout. It is about a 1/3 of a mile long. It starts out fairly steep for the first third of the hill. Then it eases off somewhat for the second third, but still goes upwards. The last third is steeper than all get-out!

 

The sidewalk is very wide. It is landscaped with lovely trees & tons of flowery shrubs. There are lots of birds & a few squirrels. And, it gets hardly any foot or bike traffic at all! I get into a sort of Zen state going up & down & up & down & up & down . . .

 

Yesterday I read in a Shape magazine that while walking up a steep hill, to use your butt more, take longer, slower strides. Today I tried it & holy gluteus maximus, they were right! The whole workout was harder. I really felt it in my butt & legs & I was breathing much harder at the top of the hill.

 

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I'm moving to a big hill next week! I'm excited, it's exactly 2.2 miles from campus, so it'll be a nice short bike ride, give me 4.4 miles of exercise everyday guaranteed The way home will be all up hill, I can feel the burn already . Plus, the whole area is great for walking, lots of trails, all hilly, so I'm really hoping to get the boy out there and get some work done! These legs need it!!!

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Try doing lunges up the hill...you won't regret it. Well maybe you will but you'll like what comes out of them. When training towards bigger track meets my coach had us do lunges up a long hill and walk down...then being the nice man that he was he let us do lunges down for our cool down...too bad the bastard made us sprint back up the hill as soon as we got to the bottom then made us to them again. Personally I think lunges are the best cross training tool to getting good deep and heavy squats...my goal was speed and we had to do deep fast lunges but slow deep lunges up hill will really help in the gym and will really shred your legs...damn I forgot all about those before this thread...I'm not happy now I've gotta do them again

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Oh, yea: burn, baby, burn!

Hill walking is such a good boost for the booty. But the problem is if you go up, you have to go down (which can be tough on the knees).

 

If you want a great hill workout, go to Quebec City. I went to a conference there last summer, and my hotel was at the top of a steep hill. I found a great veggie restaurant and a health food store a few blocks away, and at the bottom of the hill. Every day, I'd go down and up that hill at least once. And one day, I was carrying two bags full of mineral water, and the wind was blowing like mad against me, while I was going up this 45 degree angle or steeper hill. I felt like Alice in wonderland and the Queen of Hearts, who were movingn as fast as the could to stay in the same place, and even faster to get anywhere!

 

I also tried to find another veggie restaurant that I had the address for, and it was on the steepest street I've ever seen. When I was half-way up, the street was almost parallel to me!

 

I decided the the Québécois must have great butts and lousy knees!

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Not quite sure if this works for walking but runners are trained to run out as if they are on flat land when they go down hills...it leads to more pressure on the body but its pressure in the direction that most fits our structure...running down hills is what most people do...although that may feel easier on your body it isn't...plus to take more strides that way. As for the asses in Quebec...maybe thats where I need to go next summer I'll just make sure I look for women that have protective knee braces as well

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I love hills. I tore (completely) my ACL the Spring before my freshman year in college and my doctor said I could get away without surgery if I just build my hamstrings up. He recommended I do so by running hills. I ran them so much that I got to the point where I'd just get in the "zone" and keep going and going - it was definitely a runner's high type effect. GREAT feeling. Unfortunately, I eventually ended up tearing all the cartilage in my knee, so I guess the hills didn't help quite as much as he thought they would. But I still remember that feeling of being in the zone. I get it sometimes while cycling, but not quite like I had it on the hills.

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Maybe you need to climb more hill on your bike...as for me hill are only there for punishment(on the bike that is). Small hills or more then enough for me unless they are long and fast enough for drafting.

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I haven't gotten that "high" feeling from biking up hills yet like I did from running - more like pain, burning. You know what I mean. What I like about hills on a bike is being able to do them faster than someone else, or nailing a tech hill that noone else could. Yeah, I'm a little competitive.

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