I love to run—but I detest running uphill. When I hit an incline, my legs burn, I get acid reflux, and I often need to take a break to catch my breath. Jogging over hills is so terrible for me that I exclusively map out flat routes and sign up for races with minimal elevation, if any.
As it turns out, there’s a legitimate reason people struggle with hills. Every single one of us has a unique running style, or running fingerprint, as John Mercer, a professor of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, calls it.
I, for example, have a long, lanky strut while my husband hops up and down like a kangaroo. When you run uphill, your entire running style changes. Maybe you hunch over or flail your arms or stick your butt out. As a result, you engage different muscles that may not be in tip-top shape, such as your hip flexors, hamstrings, and the muscles that support your knee joints.
This, coupled with the fact that you’re now working against more gravity, is why hills can be so brutal. “Instead of just needing to propel yourself horizontally, you’re also essentially climbing a…
