How to Improve Bike Hill Climbing

No two hills are the same -- some are steep, some are gentle, some are long and some are short. Whatever the profile, a cyclist has two basic strategies at the outset: Hammer up the hill fast and hard with raw power, or drop a few gears and use smooth cadence and technique.

Low-cadence, high-gear climbing can be great for conquering short hills or for a sprint to the finish. But hard pedaling is taxing and, if done too early, can leave you huffing, puffing and drifting toward the back of the pack. It's a somewhat reckless strategy, especially for triathletes who still have miles of pavement to run even after unclipping from the bike.

For lengthy hills, drop a few gears at the start of the ascent and establish a rhythm. Spinning at a cadence of roughly 90 to 100 revolutions per minute (rpm) is best. If you start to tire and your cadence drops, shift to a lower gear. If you're spinning too quickly and not generating adequate power, upshift.

You'll want to practice optimal climbing form, which entails lightly grasping the handlebars across the top, sitting upright, bending at the elbows and pulling the shoulders back to open your chest and make breathing easier [source: Hewitt]. Tighten your core muscles and keep your upper body relaxed [source: Brown]. And pedaling technique is paramount: Drive down with one foot to generate power with your quadriceps, and pull slightly up and back with the opposite foot to engage your hamstrings.

In general, stay in the saddle -- standing and pedaling raises your heart rate and lowers your cadence. However, climbing out of the saddle engages upper body muscles and can generate the burst of power necessary for a quick surge ahead. It's also a good way to stretch and get your blood moving in the middle of the ride, according to Shawn Hanka, a 25-year cycling veteran who placed within the top 10 of his age group over four days of the 2008 Tour of the Gila race, which featured more than 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) of climbing. But racers beware: The initial deceleration that accompanies climbing out of the saddle can cause a trailing rider to rear-end you [source: Hewitt].

Performance coach Vic Brown says that if you're flat-out stronger and textbook technique isn't cutting it, you should use your god-given power to climb the hill [source: Brown]. Good form is less important than what works.

From split squats to hill repeats, the training secrets to maximize hill-crushing potential await.

Training plans to improve hill climbing ability vary from cyclist to cyclist -- professional, sponsored cyclists train differently than weekend warriors with desk jobs. In general, start by establishing a good fitness base: Ride long, hilly routes for two to three hours twice a week, then bump it up to two- to five-hour rides [source: Brown]. Next, incorporate bike hill repeats -- basically, climb a hill as quickly as possible, glide back down to the base and repeat several times [source: Carmichael].

One of the best ways cyclists can improve performance is by boosting their lactate threshold. As exercise intensity increases, your body releases lactic acid into your bloodstream, and your heart beats faster to remove this waste. When lactic acid builds up faster than your body can process it, your lactate threshold is reached, and fatigue is close behind. "If you hit that point in the middle of a climb, you could be toying with disaster," performance coach Brown says.

To raise lactate threshold, train at a heart rate a few beats below it. For example, if your lactate threshold is 155 beats per minute, you could train at 152 beats for intervals of six to eight minutes, then ride for two minutes at 122 beats to recover [source: Hanka]. You should alternate interval training days and recovery-riding days. As the weeks progress, the heart rate that corresponds with your lactate threshold will increase.

Training for hill climbing need not be bound by the hills themselves. A fixed stationary trainer or bicycle rollers can stand in when bad weather makes outdoor cycling impossible. Besides a heart-rate monitor and a bike computer that measures cadence and speed, devoted cyclists with fat bank accounts might consider a PowerTap from CycleOps, a device that measures real-time power output in watts, a more reliable indicator of effort than heart rate.

In the weight room, cyclists should focus on their core and muscles below the waist: quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and hips. Single-leg exercises like lunges, single-leg squats and split-squats are best [source: Brown].

Losing weight can improve performance -- but only if the weight loss helps produce a better ratio of power to body weight and keeps you healthy. It's not uncommon for super-lean cyclists to find that having a few extra helpings at dinner and being a few pounds heavier is better for performance [source: Brown].