Run Downhill the Right Way

Photo: Mat Honan, Flickr

Running up a hill may make you huff and puff, but your bod takes a pounding as you head down the other side.

FitSugar has a few tips to keep you cruising downhill the right way.

Don't lean back, lean forward and allow sweet gravity to pull you downhill as you imagine yourself perpendicular to the hill. Pay attention to your foot strike, too. Beyond dodging embarrassment and injury from a Jack and Jill tumble, be nice to those knees and quads with a smaller stride. Wake up your lower abs, too, it's time they pull their share of the load. Then there's the whole training piece -- the lower body needs conditioning for hills.