How to climb a hill as a beginner

Question

I'm a complete beginner cycling and I've recently started 3 times a week commuting on a hybrid 8 miles to work and 8 miles back. On the way there is a 5% gradient hill about half a mile long which is great fun to whizz down at 30mph on the way to work. It really puts a smile on my face!

It's not so fun on the way back though! Every day I end up having to get off the bike and walk up the steepest part of the hill as I find my legs just give up the ghost - despite my bike having 27 gears, and I've used them all.

What can I do to train to get up the hill? Is it just a matter of keep on trying or is there something specific I can do to help me conquer this hill? I'm assuming it's just my poor level of fitness that means I can't keep it up. It doesn't help that I'm 220lbs - which is why I have started cycling to get that number down as much as possible. Any tips greatly appreciated

For reference the bike is a Giant Escape 1 (2016)

Chain ring: 26/36/48 and cassette 9/11-34 Gear Calc here

Answer 1

The gearing of your bike seems reasonable, the 26 front/34 rear combination will (eventually) make climbing hills easy. But till then…

Before you do anything else, take @cherouvim's advice and make sure you seat is at a reasonable height. It should be high enough that if you place a heel on the low pedal your leg is almost fully extended (just short of locked). From there you can fiddle around a bit with the height. Ultimately the seat should be as high as you can get it without needing to rock your hips as you pedal. If your seat is too low climbing will be really hard!

The first question I'd ask is what happens when you run out of steam climbing the hill? Are your legs aching and burning or are you breathing really hard? The reason that I ask is that the different answers point to different immediate problems and possible solutions.

If you're legs are burning, it's a good bet that you're not using a low enough gear. In this case, try shifting to a low gear much earlier in the climb, let your feet "spin" on the pedals. You'll slow down, but the climb should be much easier if you do this.

On the other hand, if you're breathing super hard, you may be spinning too fast. It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but it may help to use a slightly higher gear, but I'd still make sure that you're starting the climb in a relatively easy gear.

As other's have said, I don't think it be too long before you notice that you are doing much better on the hill. I live in a relatively hilly part of the US and a similar situation to you. I was out of shape from years of sedentary work and infrequent riding. So the final things I want to suggest are ideas for keeping going until better fitness kicks in (I think we're talking weeks, not months):

• Pedaling faster (at a higher cadence) in a low gear is usually easier than pushing harder in a higher gear. There was a good answer a while back that explained nicely how to find a good cadence for you. I'll see if I can find it and link to it.

• Choose a strategy for the hill that seems to work for you (really any strategy, just some idea about what you want to try). Having a strategy will make it easier to see if you're making progress and it will also help you identify what to do differently if it feels too hard (e.g., legs really burning? try a lower gear). One idea I'd suggest is to try starting in a lowish, but not your lowest, gear – for me it is very comforting to know I've got a lower gear I can drop down to when the hill gets hard.

• Keep track of your progress. Notice where you are on the hill when you "bail out." As you get close to that point on each ride psych yourself up to make it or even make it a bit farther. For me, it is easier to push through burning in my legs than through gasping for breath, so I tend to moderate my climbing so that I can breath easily and tough it out on my legs (but that is me, you might have a different way). The important thing is to have some standard for progress so that you can see you're gains – even before you can make the whole hill.

• Practice standing as you climb, you might find it easier to climb standing. For me standing helps on some hills, but I have to start before my legs are too tired and my gear can't be too low. Standing is one of my "escape hatches" when I discover that I'm in too high a gear on a hill. Sometimes it is just fun, but not @andy256's comment below – it is not an efficient way to climb. The energy expenditure is actually higher than when spinning.

• My understanding is that working really hard (too the point of exhaustion) a few times a week is necessary to stimulate muscle growth. I don't think you have to work hard for long (just a few minutes), but apparently it is essential.

Two books that I've found really helpful are Just Ride and Eat Bacon, Don't Jog, both by Grant Peterson.

Answer 2

Just keep on doing the same route and you'll see progress very fast.

Also this will soon not be true:

It's not so fun on the way back though

Some tips to make it:

• make sure that the tyres are inflated correctly
• make sure your drivetrain runs smooth and the chain is lubed
• make sure your seat height is correct (ask your LBS if unsure)
• conserve energy while climbing and use a small gear
• learn about the perfect pedal stroke (google it)
• keep your upper body relaxed - do not tense
• inhale a lot, from the nose. if you find yourself out of breath, slow down and also consider using a "breathe right" (google it)
• do not do this every day. keep it 3 days per week as you said, and don't do much physical activity (especially leg related) in the days between

Answer 3

There are no shortcuts, it's about building the legs, and lungs, and body. There may be some factors that could make it a little easier, but the main factor is getting strong enough, which takes some time and some dedication.

Starting in the easiest gear may not be the best choice as it can make a climb seem endless. Try to get into the hill at good speed, with your legs cycling at a comfy cadence, not like a windmill, and then try to maintain that cadence, when it gets hard you can either step up on the pedals, or go to an easier gear, maybe do both in that order... But keep doing it, maybe do some leisure rides that have some climbs that you can do, and go up those... It's about getting your body used to it mostly...

Answer 4

(1) Go Slow and Go Easy On Yourself. Climbing hills is supposed to be hard! You are carrying 250 lbs (you, bike, your stuff) 264 feet straight up over that mile.

I was riding once with a guy who has a PowerTap hub (a $500 toy for bike nerds and pro athletes that reports energy expenditure on your bike computer), and he said the main thing he had learned from it is how much your energy expenditure spikes when going uphill. His main takeaway from that, rather than trying to maintain anything like a constant speed when going up a grade, is to try to maintain a constant energy expenditure, which means slow up the hills, usually much slower than most riders choose without any energy expenditure information. My pet theory is that lot of riders operate on a bit of a mental analogy to cars, which typically go the same speed regardless of incline, and feel they should aspire to the same.

You are not a car. Shift to first. Don't rush. I would disagree with the "try shifting up" advice -- that works in some situations, but usually only for stronger riders, so I'd save it until after you can finish the hill on your lowest gear. For a novice rider, one of your concerns should be keeping undue pressure off your knees, which means lower gears and high cadence.

(2) Keep riding. The best way to get better at bike riding is . . . bike riding. Doing a daily commute like you're doing is one of the best ways to get to be a stronger rider. Go easy on yourself -- if you have to walk part of the way, that's fine, walk part of the way -- but don't stop commuting by bike.

(3) Consider clipping in. The downside is that you have to buy new pedals and shoes, and you may well fall over once or twice getting used to them (start using clipped-in pedals in a low-traffic area; get really familiar with how to get out of them before you even start riding). The upside is they keep your feet well positioned and allow power transfer on the upstroke. I've found that Time ATAC pedals are easier to get in and out of than the more ubiquitous Shimanos, for about the same price.

Answer 5

Most everyone else has concentrated on the physical and/or your bike, and rightly so.

But the one thing I'd like to add is the mental side of riding hills. Here is the one thing I'd like you to keep in mind:

You can do more than you think you can

Try it next time you're going up that hill. Just as you're about to get off to walk, look about 20 feet ahead of your bike, spot a landmark such as a mailbox or a rock, and try to ride to it. I bet you can.

Then look ahead another 30 feet, spot another landmark and challenge yourself to get to it.

Don't think about the top of the hill. Think about little landmarks along the way.

Even if you end up stopping to walk, you'll have gotten farther up the hill than you initially meant to/thought you could.

Next time do the same; go further than you think you can. The energy is in you. The will is in you.

Soon you'll landmark yourself right up and over that hill!

Answer 6

You already have some good, helpful answers. Well done for sticking at that hill!

Make sure you're riding on slick tires, and have them pumped up pretty hard. Soft, wide tires would rob much of your effort.

Regarding the hill. There are several things involved in sustained climbing

• Technique. Do you rush at it the bottom? Or do you try to just settle to the easiest gear, and plug away? Until you have more strength, click down a gear as soon as the one you're in gets noticeably harder. You may find a rhythm like change pedal five strokes and change again. When you're in the lowest gear, just try to keep it going at whatever slow pace you can. Then try the advice in the Strength and Muscular endurance sections below. Another consideration is clipless pedals. If you don't have them, then consider getting them; they can make pedaling twice as efficient. If you do have them, make sure you are using them to give different muscles a rest. They can be used to pull up as well as drive the pedals all the way around. Finally, if there are steeper parts of the hill, then try them on alternate rides.

• Strength. You will certainly need to build up your strength. Do that by working the muscles hard for a short period. Give them a rest, then do it again. This is called interval training. Applying it to your hill, climb as far as you can, or for say, one minute. Then walk for a minute or two. Then get back on and ride for another minute, alternating until you're at the top. Importantly take a day off the next day, to let those muscles recover and grow.

• Muscular endurance. When the strength training seems to be showing results (such as you can do the intervals with less discomfort), start increasing the duration of each one. Keep the recovery periods the same. It will not be long before you can climb the entire hill.

• Heart and circulatory system. These are probably not used to the demands you are putting on them. Your heart has to grow stronger, and your circulatory system has to grow and develop also. So go steadily, and don't expect miracles. Listen to what you're body is telling you. If you're healthy, then steady work will produce the results. But if you have any concerns do consult a physician.

• Lungs and blood oxygenation. These have to develop also. They will. Again, give them the work and they'll respond. But give them the time to develop. Try to breathe deeply and slowly. Breathe in quickly through your mouth if you have to, but breath out slowly through your nose. The slow out breath is the important part; it's the part of the breathing cycle where your lungs are extracting the oxygen. The out through the nose part is good for control, and also when it's warmer to retain moisture.

Don't rush to change your bike. Get experience with this one.

Keep at it! It will not be long before you look back at this time, and use it for motivation to overcome other challenges!

Edit In response to your update on the gearing - the gears you have look fine. One day you'll look back and say with these gears I can climb vertical walls! So just stick at it. When you can climb the whole hill in the lowest gear, work up to climbing in the next lowest. Change up and down as you need to. Eventually you'll be be able to climb the whole thing in that gear ... keep doing it until one day you can climb it on the middle chain ring :-)

Answer 7

The bike can do it, and so can you, though maybe not yet.

My old commute had a 20-25% hill on it, and my bottom gear was 28x32 on 700x35 tyres. It took a few goes before I could ride up it without stopping. It wasn't as long as yours but the total climb was probably similar.

Take it easy, you don't want to be breathing hard on approach (a slightly less steep option for me was harder because traffic meant working hard before the steep bit) and aim for a little further each time you do it.

If the road is really quiet (mine was a dead end) be able to weave a little bit on the way up -- the total effort will be more but the rate of climb will be less for a given speed. Such a quiet route can also mean that you can stop, catch your breath and get going again by starting across the road (like I said, mine was very quiet).

Make sure your front gears are shifting nicely and try to change down at the front early -- mine was from a (near-) standing start so I made sure to change into my smallest chain ring before I started, but a middling sprocket.

I didn't find it helpful to stand up -- standing and pedalling at such low speeds doesn't do my balance any favours -- but others will say the opposite: find what works for you.

There's no shame in walking; it might even be quicker. I've walked up that same hill and passed cyclists riding up it, and I have to stop and catch my breath when I reach the top.

As for why you're stopping, it could be:

• Your lungs say no
• Your legs say no
• You "stall" i.e. can't get from the downstroke on one side to the downstroke on the other side

All of these will improve with practice. Not getting too hot will help as well, maybe take a layer off before the hill if you've got one to spare.

Answer 8

I had this problem some years ago. I commuted to work Monday to Friday.

It was very simple, I rode as far as I felt comfortable and then got off and pushed the bike.

As the days and weeks went by, I noticed that I was getting further and further up the hill before needing to get off. I even started to notice small landmarks to measure my progress.

Eventually I got to the point where I could do the whole hill without even thinking about it. I had trouble remembering how tough it had been at first.

Note: The commute was pretty much the only cycling I did at the time. I was certainly no athlete. I had a bog-standard sit-up-and-beg with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub gears. Eventually I could do the whole hill in the middle gear no problem.

Answer 9

The good news is that climbing is a great way to get fit!

As Eddy Merckx said: "Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades."

Listen to your body and get a feel for how hard you can push continuously, and what it feels like when you go above that (for example, I start feeling slightly nauseous). You can look up aerobic vs anaerobic to learn more about what happens.

Answer 10

My problem was always going off too quickly to begin with. Don't watch the pros to begin with. My tip is to go real slow. Get the lowest gear and just plod along. You can do almost any climb if you do it slow enough. Once you've done it slow to prove to yourself the hill can be beaten, repeat, but pick up the tempo as the top is in sight. As you improve, pick up the tempo earlier on the hill.

Remember as you improve, your weight may not drop to begin with. Muscle weighs more than fat. As you improve your muscles will grow, your weight might stay the same, but your waist will start to shrink :-)

Answer 11

Something that can help is called your "stroke".

A novice is inclined to push straight down on the pedal ... and then, straight down on the other pedal ... so that you're pushing down, and then pushing down.

A more experienced rider has a more continuous "cycle":

• Push the pedal forward when it's at the top (i.e. at "12 o'clock")
• Push the pedal down when it's at the front (i.e. at "3 o'clock")
• Pull the pedal back when it's at the bottom (i.e. at "6 o'clock")
• Pull the pedal up when it's at the back (i.e. at "9 o'clock")

Doing this is obviously easier when your shoes are clipped to the pedals.

Clipping your feet to the pedals is a long subject (which I won't try to detail here), but interesting.

Even if your feet aren't clipped you can partially emulate this full-cycle stroke, e.g.:

• Ensure that, when you're pushing down with one foot, the other foot is being held fairly weightless on (not resting its whole weight on) the other pedal
• Even if you don't have enough grip to push and pull when the pedals are vertical (at 12 and 6 oclock), you can begin to push earlier in the stroke (e.g. when the pedal is at 1 o'clock, instead of waiting until the pedal is at 2 or 3 o'clock).

Answer 12

There are many good replies here. Read them a few times and consider carefully what everyone is saying.

Based on my experience-- I totally lacked any fitness when I began to ride again as a middle-aged adult-- the hill you're trying to ride is a little ambitious, if you're carrying a few extra pounds and your fitness has not been developed sufficiently. However, as everyone has indicated, it totally do-able, given enough time and effort. And you're not riding some vintage road bike with a 42/26 lowest gear (which clocks in at 42 gear-inches, about twice as much as your actual lowest gear, which comes in at 19.9 gear-inches).

I have a couple of similar climbs near where I live (both about 0.4 miles, one with an average grade of 3%, and one with an average grade of 8%), and when I first started riding, I could just make the 3% grade, using the lowest gear on my vintage mountain bike (very similar to what your bike has), and it was a good long while before I attempted the 8% grade. On one of my first attempts of the 8% grade, I was passed on the way up by a female jogger, and she must have noticed how hard I was breathing, because I was really laboring. But over time, I kept riding, and now it's not that much of a big deal to do the 8% grade.

So, keep riding, and I think you'll find that this climb becomes less intimidating very soon.

Answer 13

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that climbing is not just about legs. Your upper body plays a large part in the process. Personally, I feel like it is 50% legs, and 50% arms and core. I can't back that up with any studies, but I believe it to be true. Your upper body does a lot of work stabilizing the bike and providing the leverage your legs need to turn the pedals, especially when you are standing. So work on the legs, but add some crunches and pull-ups every day and you will definitely see an increase in your climbing ability in a few weeks.

Answer 14

Your bikes gearing might not be ideal for you. Your bike will be like most and have a large overlap. The size of the cogs is what is most important here. If after a few rides you are not seeing improvement, think about getting the bike setup with lower gearing. Its often an easy job (But can get expensive depending on all sorts of things) and does not cost much to get the LBS to do it for you. What are the sizes of your chain rings (These are the ones that are attached to the pedal cranks, particularly smallest) and the cluster (The cogs on the rear wheel - especially the largest) - It is the smallest chain ring to largest cog that determines the lowest gear.

Answer 15

As a strong swimmer, one bit of advise I give is, "let the wall come to you." In other words, when you set that next landmark as your next goal, take one stroke at a time and watch your goal get closer and closer. Don't think, "I have x far to go." Just think, "one more stroke" and the goal magically gets closer.

I agree with the answers above which recommend core strength, as well. This is also very true when swimming, and I suspect with many other sports.

Answer 16

Wow, a lot of advice and important things mentioned here, most of them I already knew. Here is a rather psychological aspect I would like to share with you and everyone.

When I was in a very very good shape a few years ago I was sometimes riding uphill without realizing it. It seemed to me that I was simply riding the usual horizontal(plain) road. So I once asked myself, why do I try to avoid uphill riding so much? And the problem is that I was assuming it is a bad thing, it is bad to put too much effort and to resist psychologically. So since then I don't mind uphill riding at all ;)

I just ride uphill as I do on plain road, same psychological effort, just the speed is decreased and more physical effort needed and facing less comfort :). But psychologically I do no longer resist(fight with) the challenge. And it is no longer a problem, it's just a different ride, a different style of riding.