Hill Climbing and Smart Trainer

Wouldn’t it make sense to use a riser block to make the bike at an incline when doing training specifically for hill climbs? Since climbing uses a slightly different set of muscles?

Yes. I use one whenever I do a workout that is (almost) exclusively uphill, like a long mountain climb. On rolling terrain, with short (steep) climbs and downhills, I don’t.

Thanks! So do you try to emulate a certain gradient or just wing it?

I have an Elite riser block, Su-Sta I believe, which is easily adaptable to different gradients, with a maximum of 6%. That’s good enough.

I use the Kickr climb and manually set it very steep on hill repeat workouts , i’ve noticed the steeper you have it the more your groin area aches and the lower you have the more goes back towards your knees .

I use the CLIMB as well, and now most of the workouts on SUF supports it, so they actually increase gradient as you do harder intervals.