You Should Lean into the Hard Things

Three reasons to embrace difficulty

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

The jogging route I take has two distinct ends — one with a gentle downhill slope and the other with a tough uphill climb. Whenever I see runners pause for a break, it’s almost always at the uphill stretch. The same goes for brisk walkers who suddenly slow down.

As you may be able to guess, the uphill part is where things get challenging.

So while running this morning, I reached the upslope and began muttering to myself, ‘embrace difficulty, embrace difficulty’. It was so I could force myself to toughen up and continue my run uphill.

Incidentally, an uphill run burns more calories, is an excellent workout for cardiovascular resistance and works more muscle groups in the legs. It has a lower impact on the joints compared to downhill movement.

For those with knee issues such as osteoarthritis, uphill walking or jogging is more often recommended as this puts less strain on the knees.

This is the reason why those who use a treadmill are advised to use the incline setting for better results.

So health wise, going uphill is more beneficial to the body.

Generally, climbing up often appears difficult. We think of the work required and we are scared to…