I ditched running for incline walking for a week — and I'm really surprised by the results

Let me start this article with a confession — I’m a runner who actively avoids hills. If I see hill training on my plan, I’ll come up with every excuse to avoid it, and if I encounter a hill in real life, you best believe I’m walking up it, not running.

But, according to a recent study, this might be a good thing. In fact, walking uphill might be the secret to building stronger legs and boosting cardiovascular fitness. Read on to find out more, and what happened when this hill-avoiding fitness writer faced her nemesis for a week.

What are the benefits of incline walking

You’ve heard of the 12-3-30 workout, but what are the benefits of adding an incline to your daily walk? A new study published in the International Journal of Exercise Science looked into just this. The study compared the metabolic responses between the 12-3-30 workout and self-paced running.

Participants walked at a 12% incline, at three miles per hour, for 30 minutes, without holding onto the handrail. They then completed a run a few days later, which was self-paced — they simply had to run until they reached the total calorie burn of the 12-3-30 workout.

Researchers measured whether participants sourced more of their energy from fat or carbohydrates while exercising, and concluded that running burned 33% of its calories from fat, while incline walking burned 40% from fat.

While this is only a small study, there are a huge number of benefits to incline walking. Firstly, you’re forced to really work the muscles in your thighs, calves, and glutes as you climb, strengthening the lower body. You’ll also engage your core as you work to keep your torso upright.

Your heart will be working hard to push your body up the hill, so you’ll probably burn a lot more calories than if you were running or walking on the flat. Finally, despite the hill, your joints will be under less impact than when you’re running, making this a good alternative if you suffer from joint pain (although always check with your doctor first) or want a low-impact alternative while marathon training.

I swapped running with incline walking for a week — here’s what happened

I’m a marathon runner, but I’m currently rebuilding my fitness after giving birth 15 months ago. I’ve recently been trying a lot of walking workouts for Tom’s Guide, so I slipped on my running shoes and tried incline walking instead of running for a week. Here’s what happened:

My legs were on fire

For this challenge, I decided to add at least 20 minutes of hill walking to my day, every day, for seven days. On the first day, I headed out on my hilliest dog walk and did laps up and down the hill for 20 minutes, much to my fellow dog walkers' confusion.

It didn’t take long for my legs to burn. I’d use the downhill as my recovery, trying to catch my breath before powering back up the hill.

Walking on the incline immediately sent my heart rate soaring, far higher than it would when walking on the flat. I also noticed I’d burnt more calories at the end of the walk, but I could tell by the ache in my legs I was strengthening muscles I hadn’t been working as hard as I walked and ran on the flat.

I found it easier on the treadmill

On other days during the week, I would head to the gym and walk on the treadmill instead, and I’ll admit I found this much easier. One of the benefits of the treadmill is that it’s easier to control. I was able to set my incline to 12% and just walk, and although I didn’t have the breaks I did when walking outside, I felt I was able to listen to my audiobook and try and grin and bear it for 30 minutes.

On most days, I hiked around 948 feet over 30 minutes. On some days, I continued walking until I'd hit 1,000 feet.

It helped to think about my technique

I found that, especially when walking on the treadmill, I tended to lean my torso forward as I hiked uphill, looking down at my feet as I moved. This isn’t how you want to be walking, especially as it reduces the amount of work your core is doing.

I had to think about keeping my shoulders back and down, and engaging my midsection as I stepped uphill.

Maybe I won’t skip the hills in the future

A week later, I was surprised at how much I’d enjoyed this challenge and how much my legs ached from all that walking. The challenge felt accessible — all I needed was a comfortable pair of sneakers, and I strapped one of the best fitness trackers to my wrist to keep an eye on how far I’d walked, but it was easy to slow my pace when I felt tired or got particularly out of breath.

While I definitely won’t be signing up to a trail marathon any time soon, perhaps I’ll switch up one of my regular running routes to include the odd hill now and then.

More from Tom's Guide

• No, not push-ups — strengthen your entire body with this 15-minute standing dumbbell workout
• This 30-minute ‘Japanese walking’ workout strengthens your entire body and boosts your metabolism
• Goodbye sit-ups! This 10-minute workout will help you build a stronger core and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles