By Marnie Kunz,
NASM-certified trainer, USATF- RRCA-certified run coach

Running downhill may seem like a breeze, but it can be hard on your legs and joints. Whether you’re a marathon runner tackling hills or training for your first 5K, hill running requires some skill and strategy to minimize your risk of injuries. These tips will help you run downhill and take advantage of gravity pulling you down while protecting your body.

Related Post: Runner’s Guide to Hill Workouts

Benefits of Running Downhill

When dealing with hills, many runners focus on tackling the uphills, but downhill running offers unique fitness and training benefits. Here are some of the advantages of running downhill:

Improved leg turnover and speed. Running downhill allows your legs to move more quickly and trains your neurotransmitters to fire off quickly, making you a faster runner.
Racing advantage. Training to run down hills efficiently will help you perform better in races. When you’re armed with downhill training, you’ll be able to glide past people on downhill portions of your race.
Improved efficiency and less muscle soreness. Running downhill uses eccentric muscle contractions as your body works to stabilize you going down the incline. The eccentric demand on your muscles can lead to delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and neuromuscular fatigue, according to researchers. Regular downhill running will help train your body to handle these demands more efficiently. Your body will adapt to run more efficiently down hills while undergoing less damage.

Impact of Downhill Running

Running downhill puts a different kind of strain on your body than running on flat or uphill surfaces. These are some of the effects of downhill running:

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Increased leg and joint impact. Downhill running puts more pressure on your joints and muscles as your feet hit the ground with more force. Your knees, heels, and ankles absorb a lot of impact from running downhill. Hitting the brakes by slowing down on downhills also forces some biomechanical adaptations as your lower body has to go against the natural tendency to contract by instead shortening for eccentric exercise to use a braking force.
Muscle soreness. Your muscles use eccentric contractions to help you slow down and stabilize when running on downhill sections of a course, and this can cause tiny tears in your muscles, which often leads to soreness later. Downhill running places more stress on your quadriceps (the muscle along the top of your thighs), hamstrings, and calf muscles. Trail runners are especially likely to have sore quads as most trail runs include a lot of hills.
Less range of motion in your hips, which can lead to tightness in your hips and glutes and more impact on your legs from the descent.
The Repeated Bout Effect (RBE) helps your body adapt to running downhill so after your first downhill run, your body has less muscle damage and soreness the second time you run downhill. According to a study of female distance runners, repeated bouts of downhill running allowed the runners’ bodies to adapt and experience less perceived muscle soreness than the first downhill run. This protective effect helps you build endurance and become a stronger athlete by training in downhill conditions. Running downhill can improve your biomechanics and by training on downhill sections of a course, you prepare your body for a great race where you can tackle downhill segments with reduced soreness and less damage to muscle fibres.

Although downhill running places unique challenges on your body, there are ways you can learn to run down hills more effectively and minimize the wear and tear on your body.

Tips for Downhill Running

These tips will help you tackle down hills with ease and improve your running efficiency when the going gets hilly:

Shorten your stride.

Going downhill causes many runners to overstride, which puts more pressure on your joints and legs. Shorten your stride and pick your feet up quickly for a fast cadence. This will keep your legs more in line with your center of gravity give you more speed and stability and lessen the impact of downhill running on your joints.

Keep a controlled pace.

When you hit downhill segments of your run, it can be tempting to fly over the ground, but going too fast will cause more muscle damage and lead to soreness later. Similarly, if you run too slow, you’ll lose momentum and exert extra effort to break as you move. Find a middle ground that allows you to run faster than your uphill running without sprinting and pounding down the pavement.

Lean into it.

Leaning forward can help you lessen the force your feet hit the ground with when running downhill. Many people naturally lean back to slow down, but this actually lengthens your stride and puts more pressure on your legs. Lean forward slightly from the hips and keep your eyes focused in front of you.

Use your arms.

Your arms can help you balance as you cruise down hills. Don’t be afraid to use your arms more than usual when descending hills. If you keep your arms away from your body, it will help you balance more. You can even put your arms out to the sides like an airplane to help balance on steep hills.

Land lightly.

Avoid pounding your feet into the ground when you run down hills. Take short, quick steps, and you’ll ease the load on your joints. Overstriding will cause you to put more impact on your legs, so keep your steps short and sweet. Land midfoot as much as you can when running downhill to reduce the impact on your forefoot.

Strength train your legs.

Running downhill works your quads and calves more than regular running. Strength training that targets these muscles will help you prepare for smoother downhill runs. Some exercises that target your quads include squats, Bulgarian split squats, and forward lunges. To strengthen your calves, you can do calf raises and calf step-ups.

Related Post: Strength Training Guide for Runners

Relax.

Sometimes runners panic on the downhills and stop too much. Relax and work with the hill to allow your body to glide over it. Keep your shoulders upright, keep your head up, and look a few feet ahead so you’re not staring at the ground when you run. Imagine the trail or road pulling you along easily, allowing your body to sail down the hill.

Strengthen your core muscles.

A strong core will help you balance on steep and uneven downhill terrain. Do core exercises at least twice a week to improve your core strength. Planks, flutter kicks, dead bugs, bridges, and side planks are all excellent core exercises to help you become a better runner.

Related Post: 5 Best Core Workouts for Runners

Train on hills.

The best way to prepare for race conditions and running downhill is to practice on hills. If you’re training for a race with significant downhills, tackle downhill running at least once a week. If you train on a treadmill, you can set it to a decline position to simulate downhill training. You will have some muscle soreness after your downhill workouts, which means your body is adapting to training. If you have sudden or sharp pain while running, stop and consult your doctor if the pain persists.

Have you tried downhill running? Tag @Runstreet on Instagram to get cheered on in your training and racing. If you need a training plan to help you crush your big running goal, head to the Runstreet Training Center for my customized training programs.

Happy running to you! 😊

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach, dog lover, Akita mom, and writer based in Brooklyn, NY.

Guide to Running Downhill: Tips from a Run Coach