We've teamed up with Rad Running to bring you another Workout Wednesday — this time we're heading to the hills!

It’s important to activate your glutes before hill work so that your entire posterior chain — back body muscles — works as the integrated unit it’s designed to be, rather than defaulting to dominant muscles like quads or other “helper” muscles like hamstrings and calves. How to Activate Your Glutes and Power Your Push Off are great for activating and strengthening your glutes to optimize your power on hills and beyond.

HILL REPEATS

Plan:

Warm Up: 10 min easy jog + How to Activate Your Glutes OR Power Your Push Off

• 4 x 15 second strides (take as much walking recovery as you’d like between each)

• 6 x 200m gradual hill preferably (dirt or fine gravel path) with easy jog recovery down the hill back to start. If you aren't sure what 200m looks like do by time: 0:40-0:55 second hill.

Cool Down: 10 min easy jog + Hammy Time | Booty Lock Mitigation

Purpose:

Hill work provides similar benefits as the rep work you did last time on the track. You’re spending a short amount of time at a relatively high intensity against gravity repeatedly with a recovery jog that’s longer than the 200 hill rep. Hill work is also great for increasing the strength and efficiency of your stride.

Pace:

Try to run the hills alternating between a moderate pace for one followed by a harder pace for the next. Think of 70–75% perceived effort for your moderate hill bouts and 80–90% of perceived effort for your harder hills. Do 3 at moderate pace and 3 at a harder pace with 6 downhill jog recoveries.

Pointers:

• The total volume of this workout should be about 5% of your weekly mileage, so feel free to adjust the amount of 200s you do based on your own training plan! For example, if you were aiming to hit 20mpw, you would want to total 1 mile of rep work (8 x 200).

• Visualize shortening your stride, running tall, looking ahead at the hill but with your chin neutral and driving your arms to help you get up that hill!

• Take the recovery jog down the hill nice and easy and take a moment at the bottom to make sure your breath is recovered as well.

We’ve been working with Rad Running since its inception, and every Rad Running athlete gets an Athletes for Yoga Subscription as part of their package. Be sure to check out Rad Running to find out more.