Calf Elevators to Climb Uphill

One intention in this teaching is to learn how to get better use of your whole body rather than overusing some areas while underusing others. In this case, we can find a way to get more use of the whole leg while walking uphill if we intentionally use our calves. This exercise will also be helpful if you walk longer distances and start to feel fatigued through the knees, hips, and thighs.

Calf Elevators are common exercises for strengthening the calves, but here we can apply them to walking uphill:

Take a step uphill but keep your weight on the back leg. In fact, you can test your weight and balance by lifting the front foot off the ground and then setting it back down. Then, use the calf muscles of the back leg to elevate the heel off the ground. Test your weight (and balance) again by lifting the front foot and setting it back down and see if you can keep the back heel up. Then go ahead and use your hip and butt muscles of the front leg to carry your body onto that leg and toward the next step. Take your next step up the hill and repeat the process.

Once you've played with keeping your weight on the back leg, elevating onto the ball of the foot, and keeping your balance, then try incorporating the calf elevator into your walk uphill. This simply decreases the amount of work that your thigh and butt muscles have to do to carry you uphill and brings about a more equal distribution of muscle activity through the whole leg.