10 Awesome Benefits of Trail Running That Will Inspire You to Hit the Trails

Last Updated on February 17, 2022 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP

The benefits of trail running span across both physical and mental health, making it an ideal form of exercise or sport specific training for almost everyone. As ridiculously cheesy as it sounds, it brings me utter delight – probably more than it should – to tell you about them.

In 2011 I was an avid road runner with my sights set on training to run a coveted Boston Marathon qualifying time. Then, I moved to New England, realized the local trails were more conducive to logging miles than the roads, fell in love with trail running, and (almost) never looked back.

Over a decade later, I can confidently say that trail running has made me a better athlete, and a better human being.

And while I certainly don’t mean to imply that every runner should ditch the roads and hit the trails, as an exercise physiologist and experienced running coach, I do believe that all runners can benefit from hitting the trails from time to time. And I’m going to tell you why…

Physical Benefits of Trail Running

First, let’s look at all of the excellent ways trail running can help strengthen and improve your body:

1. Improve Balance and Coordination

Trails are often uneven and covered in obstacles and hazards, such as rocks, tree roots, mud, and even the occasional wildlife.  Believe me, I’ve tripped over all of them many times.   

 In order to prevent stepping on or even falling over such hazards, a far greater level of bodily awareness is required than typically needed when running on paved roads. The greater bodily awareness combined with the constant shifting of your body weight to avoid such obstacles while running will help increase your overall balance and stability.

A common fear among newer trail runners is that they’re going to trip and fall. And I won’t lie…chances are you probably will fall at some point. But the more you trail run, the better your balance and coordination becomes, meaning those falls become very few and far between.

2. Build Stronger Muscles

Trail running challenges runners to use their bodies and muscles in a completely different manner compared to road running, which can help athletes build stronger muscles. Anytime you place resistance against a muscle and force it to work at a level harder than it is currently accustomed to, you’re going to build strength.

To maintain that balance, more muscle groups are activated throughout your run to compensate for the constant shifting of your body weight, including smaller stabilizing muscles in your legs, ankles, feet, and even your core.

Further, the ever changing terrain, constant shifting, and often rolling hills that accompany trails, require you to engage different muscle groups more frequently than you would simply running on flat roads.

The aforementioned obstacles and unpredictablitlty with foot placement forces trail runners to use more lateral movement patterns, compared to the predicable forward movement of running on roads.

Further, the often hilly terrain of trails forces your legs into greater concentric and eccentric (shortening and lengthening of muscles) muscle contractions, similar to that of strength training.

Because the softer terrain of trails absorbs more force and provides less rebound than pavement, the quadriceps, hip flexors and gluteus muscles are forced to engage more than they do on a pavement.

What Muscles Does Trail Running Work?

Trail running truly can be a full body workout, working almost all of the muscles in your body. However, the major movers in trail running are:

• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Glutes
• Hips (Adductors & Abductors)
• Calves (Gastrocnemius & Soleus)
• Feet
• Abdominal
• And, especially if you utilize trekking poles, (or have to climb up and over big rocks!) the muscles of the upper body
  • Back
  • Shoulders
  • Chest
  • Triceps
  • Biceps

Does Trail Running Work Your Core?

The muscles in your core are vital for helping maintain balance and stability, and trail running will absolutely challenge them.

Remember, your core is more than just your abdominal muscles. The “core” refers to everything in your lumbar-pelvic (trunk) and hips area – which includes almost 35 different muscles! So think not only the rectus abdominis (the “6 pack”), but the other three layers of abdominal muscles, low back, hips, and glutes.

While trail running will work your core, adding core focused strength training into your routine will in turn help improve your trail running performance.

3. Increase Ankle Strength & Stability

So many road runners fear that hitting the trails will result in a sprained ankle from tripping on a root or rock, but the truth is, trail running can actually help increase ankle strength and stability in the long run!

 As mentioned above, the varying terrain of trails combined with numerous obstacles forces greater proprioception (a fancy word for perception or awareness of the position and movement of your body in space at any given time) and muscle engagement, specifically stabilizing muscles, such as those in the foot and ankle.  

 You can’t strengthen what you don’t work, and often times the monotonous, one direction movement of road running leaves these stabilizing muscles and ligaments underworked. This is why as coaches, we typically see sprained ankles more often in road runners, versus trail runners.

4. Lower Impact On Your Body Compared to Road Running

Trail surfaces are typically softer than that of pavement or concrete. As a result, less force is being applied to your body from the running surface, specifically your legs, resulting in lower impact and lower stress placed on the body compared to road running.

Varying the surfaces that you run on throughout your training may help prevent injuries that occur due to overuse and impact.

And trail running surfaces certainly do vary! You may encounter everything from soft sand, to hard packed dirt, to crushed gravel, to a trail so littered in rocks and boulders, you’re not even sure exactly where the trail is.

Is Trail Running High Impact?

It’s important to note that even though trail running is lower impact compared to running on pavement or concrete, trail running is still technically a high impact sport.

High impact denotes an exercise that requires both feet to leave the ground at the same time. No matter what surface you run on, both feet will be off the ground at some point during your running gait.

Is Trail Running Better for Your Joints?

While the idea that ‘running is bad for your joints’ is practically as old as the sport itself, research continues to prove this idea wrong.

A 2017 meta-analysis of 25 studies and 125,810 recreational runners found that the runners had a lower chance of developing knee and hip arthritis compared to nonrunners/sedentary individuals and competitive runners (JOSPT 2017)

But, if road running isn’t as bad for joints as naysayers claim, are trails even better? Maybe! A 2019 study comparing the structural integrity of the Achilles tendon in road runners versus trail runners found that the trail runners as a whole had stronger Achilles, suggesting that running surface does play an effect on prevention of injuries (Waddington, G. et al., 2019)

If you find road running is uncomfortable, trail running may feel more agreeable to your body.

5. Improve Cardiovascular Health

Trail running is a fantastic way to help maintain or improve cardiovascular health.

The truth is that any form of exercise that increases both your heart rate and ventilatory (breathing) rate counts, and contributes to the minimum recommended aerobic exercise suggested by the most recent Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

(Which, if you were wondering, is a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week. More is better.)

In fact, 2020 systematic review states that  running is  associated with a lower risk of death related to cardiovascular disease in both men and women (Pedisic,Z. et al, 2020)

Is Trail Running Harder Than Road Running?

Despite being lower impact and potentially “easier” on your joints, in may ways trail running is harder than road running. This is because of the wildly varying and unpredictable terrain, but also because the softer surface absorbs more impact with each landing, which means there’s less energy return, requiring a runner to use MORE force to push back off of the ground with each step.

Between the energy absorption, and the fact that you naturally need to pay more attention to where you place your foot with each step, trail running is typically slower going and harder than road running.

Will Trail Running Make Me Faster?

Have no fear – the slower times and harder effort of trail running may correlate to faster road running times. The increased strength you build while trail running, added to the possible increased foot turnover while avoiding obstacles will leave you feeling like road running requires far less effort.

Mental Benefits of Trail Running

But wait, there’s more! In addition to being really great for your physical well being, runners can reap the rewards of a number of mental benefits of trail running as well!

6. It’s Good for Your Brain

Science agrees that trail running is good for your brain. Studies show that spending time in nature while trail running can:

• Decrease the level of cortisol, a stress hormone (Song, C. et al., 2016)
• Ward off negativity (Bratman, G.N., et al, 2015)
• Ease the effects of depression (Berman, M.G., et al., 2012)
• Enhance attention (Taylor, A.F., et al., 2009)
• Improve creativity (Atchley, R.A., et al., 2012)
• Increase problem solving skills (Atchley, R.A., et al., 2012)

I’m not making it up when I say trail running makes you happy!

Further, because of all of the obstacles that need to be avoided, and making sure you stay on the right path and don’t get lost, trail running certainly forces runners to stay more alert, exercising your brain as you run!

7. You’ll Build Mental Strength

On the other end of the “happy” spectrum, trail running can be incredibly difficult at times, forcing you to tap into – and build – mental strength. The unpredictability of Mother Nature means that at times, you may encounter less than ideal trail conditions, or trails that truly challenge your fitness and willingness to go on.

Learning to push through these sometimes unpleasant conditions (like shin deep water and soaking wet socks!) increases your mental toughness.

There’s also the element of “adventure” in trail running. Many love the primal thrill of being isolated in nature. Other’s find it intimidating.

But mastering the art of navigating a trail while running can help you build confidence in your ability to tackle these difficult tasks!

8. Learn the Art of Patience

Trail running can often be MUCH slower going than road running, forcing runners to learn how to be patient.

You’ll learn to value your workout accomplishment by so much more than just your pace, a measurement that is highly focused on with road running. Rather, you’ll look at things such as how technical the trail was, how much vertical gain and loss you had, how you were able to overcome some difficulties to complete the workout…or simply by how much fun you had.

Trail running will make you realize it’s not about how quickly you finished the run, but about the experience you had while you were out there.

9. Avoid Monotony

Trail running is akin to being a kid on a playground.  There are puddles to jump in, streams to jump over, logs to cross, rocks to climb, and trees to duck under.  

Forget the same old view of flat pavement and cookie cutter suburban homes.  Trails are a constant adventure.

10. Experience a Runner’s High

The Runner’s High is a state of pure bliss induced by any given run of no particular difficulty or distance.  The runner’s high is definitely one of the reasons that runner’s continuously keep coming back for more.

A runner’s high is the result of your body releasing feel-good hormones, such as endorphins, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and endocannabinoids, during exercise.

I have absolutely no scientific proof to show that this happens more frequently while trail running versus road running. But anecdotally? I totally believe it to be true.

Ready to Hit the Trails?

Now that you know all of the amazing benefits of trail running, I’m hoping you can’t wait to hit the trails yourself. Check out the following related beginner friendly trail running posts to help you get started:

How to Start Trail Running: 10+ Tips to Transition from Road to Trails

Trail Running Gear for Beginners: What You Really Need (and What You Can Skip)

8 Trail Running Safety Tips Every Runner Needs to Know

11 Trail Running Etiquette Rules for Safety & Sustainability