Uphill or down: The health benefits of hiking depend on where you're headed

Don't ignore the descent — or the stairs down — as an exercise strategy.

Hiking is a popular way of being active outdoors, especially during summer. Although everyone knows that climbing up a hill or mountain is a great workout, we tend to see reaching the top as the end of the "real" exercise and the descent as easy street. But research from the Vorarlberg Institute in Feldkirch, Austria, suggests that heading downhill is a form of exercise with unique health benefits.