Originally Posted by Pedal Wench
I use a treadmill since I hike as well as bike. I've found that doing slow but very steep inclines helps the same muscles that are used for bike climbing. My treadmill is made for hikers, with an incline of 25%. An hour and half of 2.5 mph at 25% incline is quite a workout!
Yep, and put on a ~25 lb. backpack while you're doing this. I found that I adapted to slow incline workouts pretty quickly, but steep and fast was too hard on my hip flexors and tendons. Adding the pack solved both problems.