[music] Heather Fell: Is there a right way
to run downhill? Yes, there is. There's actually some technique required, or at least there is if
you want to do it properly. Today, by the end of this video, we're going to have you descending
like a pro, but first things first, I should probably get to the top of the hill.
If you've ever wondered why you might run at the same pace as someone in
racing and training on the flatten uphill, but it comes to descend,
they leave you for dead. It's obviously not because they're fitter or stronger.
It is purely because they've got more skills, and maybe on a really steep descents, there's
just a bit of bravery thrown into. If you do have a race coming up, that's got a lot of downhill,
it's worth working on your skill and also conditioning your legs. Beyond that, we all want
to just improve our overall running, don't we? This is going to be able to help you run faster
without having to work any harder aerobically. Basically, today, we're covering free gains.
Gravity can be your friend when you're running downhill, you want to allow this to help you not
fight it. If you think about when you're running on the flat, you have a slight natural forward
lean. You want to carry that over to when you're running downhill. I know, to a certain extent, it
is going to depend on the gradient, but if you can start off on gradual gradients, and then picture
the ground and think about your body. Ideally, you want to still remain at around 90 degrees or
preferably even slightly lower than that, the angle from the front of you to that ground.
As the ground gets steeper, you're actually going to be leaning further forwards within
reason to try and keep that angle. Now, as it does get steeper, it's going to be more tempting
to lean backwards, but then you're just going to be fighting that position and not allowing
gravity to aid you. Like I said, start up by trying to find a gradual slope that's going
to have a smooth terrain underneath so you're not going to have to worry about your footing.
I want you to ignore your pace. Really doesn't matter how fast you're running, but just go with
whatever feels comfortable. As you start to work on that forward lean, you should be able to feel
your foot landing on the ground, very similarly to the way you would be landing if you are running
on the flat. With this, you'll just find that your legs will move more naturally underneath
you. Then, you want to think about your eye position and your head position. Still keep that
natural gaze ahead of you, 10, 20 meters ahead. Just like you would if you were running normally.
Now, you might actually need to consciously think about trying to tuck your chin in ever
so slightly. Now, this won't be tucking it in, but when you run downhill, it is quite
tempting. Naturally lift your head to try and slow yourself down, and that's going to put you leaning
backwards and fighting gravity. If you just try to tuck your chin in, but still keep the gaze ahead,
you'll find that naturally you're going to stay in that much better body position.
This leads us on nicely into the foot strike. We've already touched on it a little bit, but
it does go hand in hand with your lean. If you're leaning too far backwards,
you're probably going to be landing with a heel strike. Now, ideally, you want to
have a mid-foot landing similar to what you would have on the flat. If it's going to be four foot,
you're probably leaning too far forward, but that is pretty uncommon. Ideally, you want your foot to
be landing underneath your body as that's going to make it easier to keep that smooth running gait.
Another reason to avoid a heel strike, not only are you going to be fighting it and leaning back,
it goes with the fact that you're probably going to have your legs straight, which,
when it comes to running downhill, it's going to be a lot more jarring, going through your knee
and the ligaments around it, but also through your lower back. Think about having a soft
knee. There's a very slight bend in your knee that's going to help allow for that absorption
and also just make the running downhill smoother. Onto cadence now. Usually a shorter, fastest ride
is going to be easier to control and help you keep the correct form as opposed to a long and slow
stride. It will help you to keep that mid-foot landing with your foot landing underneath you,
and also allow for that soft knee. The soft knee becomes more important when you're
running downhill because of the impact that you get with this added gravity.
Obviously it's going to be making you run a little bit quicker, so that's going to be adding to the
impact, but also the fact that each footstep is actually landing further down. You're going
to be in the air for longer, and all of this is just going to add up and just put a little bit
more pressure on your body, so form becomes really important. So far, we've touched on
our chin, head, knees, feet and overall body, but what about arms? Arms play quite a significant
factor when it comes to running downhill. On the more gradual slopes you want to think
about using them, just like you would on the flat. They're there to help with propulsion
and balance out your stride. As it gets steeper, it's fine to leave your arms out to the side a
little bit more because they're there to help with balance, but do be aware that they will
have an impact on your overall body position. If your arms start to move further back, it's going
to encourage your body to be leaning backwards. Always try to keep them nice and relaxed and
be able to react to the ground, and it's just going to help you run downhill more naturally.
Let's have a look at equipment. If you're doing a lot of downhill running or you've got a downhill
race coming up, you might want to consider getting a shoe with a little bit more cushioning. That's
going to help dampen some of that impact we've talked about. If it is an off-road
event, then make sure you've got plenty of grip on your shoes because you can be running faster,
but if it's too off-roady, do try to avoid too bigger stack height or anything that's too fat
and cushion because it's actually going to make you a little bit more unstable.
When it comes to actually securing your shoe on your foot, you want to make sure
that your laces are done up evenly the whole way through and holding your foot, just nicest
security in the shoe, because every time your foot lands, especially on the steepest stuff,
your toes are going to naturally being jolted to the front of the shoe and you
don't want to have that added pressure and discomfort there. Now, as with anything,
you need to allow your body and your mind time to sort of develop and adapt to these changes.
Ideally, starting off on something gradual, I know not everyone has the option of different
hills where you live, but if you can build it up so that you've let your body get stronger,
and also just improve that skill, you'll find that you'll be practicing the correct technique
far more easily. If you can, try to avoid those really hard surfaces, find something like grass,
or gravel, or even sand, just practice that technique and it'll take out the jarring from your
joints and allow you to do it for much longer. However, if you do have a race coming up that
you know has got some really steep descents, or it's got some off-road, or it's got
all on asphalt, make sure that you are putting in some practice, that's going to relate to that,
because otherwise your body's going to have a serious shock when it comes to the race.
Make sure, though, you do that with enough time beforehand so you've had plenty of time to rest,
because you don't want to be going into a race with sore muscles.
This is where we need to introduce hill reps, and you might be lucky enough to live somewhere that's
got rolling hills so you can do a loop route when you're going up and down, but ideally,
for training’s sake, you want to find one hill that you can focus on and go and do your training.
Here on the channel, we talk about hill reps as a great way for getting strong as you work
up the hill and you recover by jogging or walking downhill. With the focus being on improving your
descending, we want to actually flip the focus on where the effort is going here.
You want to work on trying to descend a little bit quicker and, yes, you are still going to
have to get some top of the hill and that is going to work. It's basically a double-edge
training benefit, but as you get closer to a race, or you're wanting to really dial in on this skill,
I want you to practice running downhill faster, but not stopping at the bottom,
turning around straight away and coming back up, because when a natural race situation,
you're probably going to hit that uphill as soon as you've done the downhill,
so you want to get your legs used to turning from going down in that descending eccentric
loading to turning around and going back up. When you need a rest, take the rest at the top
of the hill, instead of at the bottom. Now, you might be panicking if you've got a downhill race
coming up, but you don't live anywhere that's got hills. There's lots of ways around this, but first
thing to think about what's actually happening to your legs when you're running downhill.
Now, your quadricep muscles, the muscles on the front of your thighs are lengthening under
tension, so whilst contracting, and this is why the next day you'll feel that DOMS feeling, your
legs just hurt, quite often more than they would if you'd gone uphill. Now, this can be replicated
in several ways. You can do it on some steps and stairs, so practice running down the stairs, or
you could alternatively do it with a weighted vest or maybe fill a rucksack with a whole load of cans
of beans, and you can even walk down the stairs, and sometimes going the actions more slowly
in a more controlled manner can actually be harder and work as really good conditioning exercise.
Then you've got the option in a gym or quite easy to improvise at home
with the box jump. Now, usually the emphasis is on the jump-off and the spring in that part,
this is now the emphasis on the landing, the jumping down. You could simply be stepping up
onto the box and jumping down either on single leg or double leg. Again, your quads are going to be
contracting and firing whilst being lengthened as they absorb that impact. These are two great ways,
and even if you do have hills near you and you're doing some downhill training,
they can still be a great addition to your conditioning. There are some popular and
rather major events such as the Boston Marathon that involves a fair amount of downhill running.
That's got the first few miles that are over a gradual descent, and you've got something that's
got even more significant downhill like comrades when it's the downhill year, and that's 87K with
the majority of it descending. For races like that, you certainly need to make sure you've
done your conditioning beforehand, but whether it's for racing or purely just improving your
downhill running, it's going to take a certain amount of practice and conditioning in order
to really get your legs that you used to. Hopefully, you found this useful and you're
going to go and find some hills and start flying down them. Give us a "Like" if you've
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