The Hill Climb Repeats is a intermediate-friendly machine strength exercise that targets the quadriceps, with the glutes, hamstrings and calves working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesQuads
Secondary musclesGlutes, Hamstrings, Calves
EquipmentMachine
LevelIntermediate
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Hill Climb Repeats
Warm up with easy riding until your legs and breathing are ready to work.
Choose a grade or resistance heavy enough to pull your cadence down.
Stay seated with your hips back and your upper body quiet.
Drive the pedals through the whole circle rather than stamping downward.
Hold the effort for the planned repeat, then recover on easy resistance.
Repeat the climb and recovery pattern, then spin easy to finish.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Builds pedal force at low cadence without leaving the saddle.
Adds a high-demand cycling stimulus that stays low impact.
Structures easily into repeatable, measurable training blocks.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Standing up as soon as it gets hard, which changes the stimulus of the repeat.
Choosing resistance so heavy that form breaks and the knees take the load.
Rocking the shoulders side to side, which wastes energy without adding power.
Starting the next repeat before output has recovered, so quality falls away.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Hill Climb Repeats, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
