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Going to the great smokey mountains and Mt. Mitchell in like 3 days and was hoping to find out this info.

I cycle regularly as part of my training and seem to fare better compared to my climbing buddies who don't on the decents.

Used one real cheap trekking pole and my knee feels find this time. Everything else and right wrist is sore but won't have knee pain for a week

Your Dudeness wrote:I think I don't pound as much this way because I touch the foot to the ground and then load it and then lift the other foot, touch it, load it, etc. It is gentler than facing out.

This can be accomplished facing out, and I imagine hiking barefoot as DMT suggests will provide some negative feedback when you fall onto your front foot rather than bend your back leg and place your front foot.

The exception is plunge-stepping in snow or scree. I'd prefer shoes in this case...

I have a local hill that varies between about 10- 40 degree grades that is about 1/3 mile long. I just load my pack with bricks (start with 40 lbs and work up to 60 lbs) and go up and down the hill for 1- 2 hours. Since I started this before every major climb I've had no problems.

downhill muscles aren't necessarily that different than uphill muscles. they're mostly the same muscles.

the key is HOW they are being contracted. going uphill, they are concentric contractions. this means that the muscle shortens when it wants to contract.

however, going downhill leads to a lot of eccentric contractions. this means that while you want to contract the muscle and make it get shorter, the muscle is actually getting longer (i.e. getting pulled apart). this creates a lot more muscle "damage".

this damage is actually "good" in that it leads to muscle building; however, it is also the cause of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). that's the pain. muscle force production will quickly weaken and stay that way for days until the muscle has recovered and gotten stronger.

so if you are experiencing problems downhill, you need to do a bit more eccentric contraction training on your legs, so that they are used to it and recover more quickly. of course, going downhill more often is a decent way of doing this.

Try going faster downhill. I find that when I try to control the descent more the more my bad knee hurts. If you just let it go and keep your momentum there is not that pressure from trying to slow yourself down.

Walking lunges really help (also good for skiing).

I also have this knee pain on descents, and the pain is located on the outsides of my knees. A running coach (I'm not a runner, btw) told me the pain was caused b/c my hamstrings were too weak compared to my quads. Anyone have any insight as to whether this may be true or not?