Uphill Sprints

[UniKKatiL]

There are lots of dudes who train only their upper body, but when you look at their legs, they are skinny. One of the best ways to train your legs is to sprint up hills. I used to have really skinny legs, now I have gained some muscles, and I've gone to one of the slowest in my area to one of the fastest 100m sprinters by doing up hill sprints. It's also a great way to burn fat. And I mean I've been running really steep hills and I've never been in a better shape. I rec. this instead of going out for a jog which is boring. Up hill sprinting has also many other great benefits:

Naturally Raise HGH without Drugs and Harmful Side-Effects

It has said to believe that HGH is responsible for vitalizing the fountain of youth. And one of the fastest most natural way of increasing HGH levels in the body is through Up-Hill Sprinting. So for those of you who are interested in burning fat and building lean muscle – as well as stopping the aging process, uphill sprinting is your ticket.

HGH can be produced naturally with no side effects, eliminating the need for costly injections that can harm a person. Getting the body to increase production of Human Growth Hormone is through short, but highly intense weight training workouts. Research has shown that the very best way to get the body to boost HGH levels is by brief but intensive sprints, more specifically up-hill sprints.

Workout Hard, Eat Well and Sleep Good

When comparing sprinters to long-distance runners, you will notice that the long distance runners are thin and have little muscle tone while sprinters are very lean and do not have hardly any body fat but do have plenty of lean muscles. To increase the HGH production further is to mingle weight training exercises with the short and intense sprints. The strenuous exercise forces the body to relinquish a surge of the HGH. Also valuable to increase the Human Growth Hormone from within the body is eating in a manner to keep the body’s blood sugar levels stable and allowing yourself to have a restful and complete night of sleep. It has been proven that the largest quantities of Human Growth Hormone is produced the most efficiently at night during rest.

Start Small and Short

Start out doing whatever you personally can achieve and work up from there slowly. This training exercise may be simple but what it accomplishes will amaze you. I’ve started at 50 yard sprints mixed with bodyweight exercises in between the sprinting. And now I can do over 75 yards in up-hill sprints with the bodyweight exercises and continue to make great gains.

Not an Everyday Workout

You don’t want to do sprints everyday, it gets taxing on the joints and ligaments. I’ve had first hand experience of overtraining in this area. A good regimen would be to do them once or twice a week, which is what I prefer myself.

I started doing it 3 times a week, now I do it everyday... I'm taking a break soon again.

Running uphill: Sprinting up hills can make you taller, and that is a known fact. As you do these uphill sprints your spine gets spacing in between the disks. This causes muscle to grow there which effectively elongates your spine making you taller. So go run up a hill!

How hill sprints make you run faster

Tim Kauppinen explains why hill training will improve your speed

It is well known that adding resistance to your sprints can bring about great gains in speed, especially during the initial or "drive" phase of your sprint. Overcoming resistance will help you overcome inertia when you are starting from a stationary position. In other words, hill sprints help you go from a static starting position to full speed faster. In addition to this, the slightly shortened stride length during hill sprints promotes longer ground contact, which is also key to the "drive" phase - when you are looking to "rip back the track." Dragging tires and sleds, towing parachutes and pushing against partners are other common forms of this type of training. The great thing about hills is that you do not need additional equipment or a training partner to get an incredible resistance sprinting workout.

Hill sprints teach proper knee lift

Another commonly known fact is that sprinting with "knees up" can make you faster. This high knee lift is important to loading your leg and allowing you to step down forcefully to push your body forward. Running uphill forces you to lift your knees high - similar to how you would run over mini hurdles or through shallow water or deep snow. High knees will make you bound like a gazelle during the middle or "float" phase of your sprint.
Hill sprints teach proper "toe up" position

Along with teaching proper knee lift, hill sprints force dorsiflexion of the foot. You must pull your toes up towards your shins when you are going uphill. This position works the anterior tibialis muscle on the outside front of your lower leg. This muscle is essential for running fast (and vertical velocity). The farther up you can flex your foot, the more power you can exert into the ground on foot contact. Think of your "toe up" position as a "loaded" position - ready to unload power into the ground. As an added bonus, strong anterior tibialis can help you to avoid shin splint problems.
Hill sprints strengthen your ankles

Besides helping you avoid the most common injury in athletics, the ankle sprain, strong ankles lead to improvements in stride length. The stronger your ankles become, the harder you can push off the ground to move your body forward. The harder the push, the longer the time you stay in the air between foot contacts resulting in a longer stride length. Since speed can be thought of as a combination of turnover and stride length, stronger ankles can become a major area for improvement. Note: It is not just sprinters who benefit here, even distance runners can shave time off their races by covering more ground with each stride.
Hill sprints promote hamstring safety

Finally, sprinting hills can give you a full intensity workout without ever getting up to your full 100% speed. Since you never reach top speed, your hamstrings are at little risk. This can be important in early season training (especially in cold weather). Now, this does not mean that you should ignore your hamstrings. When your conditioning and strength improve and the weather is warm, be sure to include flat (and even downhill) sprints to work this important area of your legs. Stronger hamstrings - especially if they are more balanced with your quadriceps - are another effective way to run faster.

Finally

There you have my top five reasons why hill sprints can make you faster. In my opinion, you will get a huge number of benefits out of this one simple exercise. I have used them, my athletes have used them, and many professional and Olympic athletes have done the same. No matter what your sport or activity, add some hill sprints into your training program and watch your performances improve.
About the Author

Tim Kauppinen has over 20 years experience as an athlete and coach. He has worked with athletes of all ages and abilities in track and field, football, speed training and strength and conditioning after graduating from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a coaching emphasis. Tim can be contacted through his website at www.makesyoufast.com

 

[UniKKatiL]

Nothing Beats Sprinting Up A Hill To Lose Weight Fast
By: Rocco Castellano

Over the years I've discovered that the faster I want to burn fat the shorter I want my workouts to be. It is this philosophy that drove me to Hill Training. I stumbled upon Hill training when I was boxing in my youth. I was running nearly 10 miles a day and was bored out of my mind, not to mention I was putting so much time in an not getting the desired result: fat loss.

I wanted to shorten my workouts and still get the same benefits or better. I tried experimenting with sprint work and interval training which worked wonders but a track coach at my school suggested I incorporate Hills into my workout. You're probably not familiar with Ridgefield, NJ or Ridgefield Memorial High School but it sits at the foot of a beautiful winding hill called "Major Stocum Drive". This hill would become my unrelenting nemesis for years to come. The more I trained on it the more it would mock me. I had been running everyday at least 10 miles a day on average and one set of "Interval Hills" kicked my ass. My legs felt like they were going to explode, my lungs where no longer inside my chest cavity (or so I thought) and I think my heart escaped while I was puking.

Although I did a bunch of strength related exercises at the gym such as squats, leg presses, leg extensions and curls I never felt the power that I was able to get from contracting my muscles against gravity in a sustained fashion. What seemed magical was with this Hill Training I was able to take some time off and still not lose my fitness gains and it helped to make my tendons and ligaments stronger as well. The side effect of this intense training was an extreme drop in body fat. With the increased workload in shorter spurts I was actually expended more calories than during my many hours of running. As I later found out my body had adapted to the sustained repetitive workload of the running and became efficient at using the energy required to propel me on my journey. Hill Training created "chaos" in my energy systems and the increased workload expended more calories. It was totally win-win.

Some workouts that I did to incorporate Hill Training into my program:

Interval Hills: This is pretty basic but it kicks your ass all the same. Warm up for about six - eight minutes either on a bike or take a short jog before you hit the hills. Try a small degree incline at first and gradually make your way to a steeper one. Each hill climb interval should be minimum 45 seconds in length. Stop at 45 turn around and make your way back down the hill walking. Rest about 30 or so seconds and run that hill again. Keep doing it until you feel like puking...or you puke.

Treadmill Hills: In the unfortunate circumstance that you live in a place like Indiana where I think the only hills you will encounter are speed bumps than you may have to resort to using a treadmill. Warm-up for six to eight minutes. When you're sufficiently warmed up set the grade of incline at between 10 and 15 degrees. Run at 45 second bursts on the incline and lower for 90 seconds and increase the incline. Repeat until your body tells you to stop.

Downhill Training: Most individuals place emphasis on the uphill workouts for power and strength but Downhill Training helps to build stability at the knee and hip joints. Just the act of keeping your balance while running down a hill will place great demands on your legs. This also increases stress on your lower quads and calf muscles (specifically, the gastrocnemius).

You don't want to sprint down the hill but run with the natural pace of the hill. Your strides should always be smooth and not choppy (as if you were braking with your feet). Braking can cause impact injuries to your quads and knee joints. Walk up the hill for about 100 or so yards turn around and run down the hill. Walk back up and repeat this 5 times. Increase as you see fit. Downhill training should be done once a week.

Overloading your body with this type of exercise places great demands on your energy and fat stores which in turn burns more fat and calories. Add this training into your workout when you have the need to cut your body fat exponentially. Until next time, Attitude is everything.

Read more: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Articl...hill-to-Lose-Weight-Fast/514766#ixzz0nvB9t45s
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

Hill Sprints Get You Fit Fast
Dear Friend,

Great NFL Hall-of-Fame running backs like Walter Payton and Marcus Allen proved that hill sprints are a superior way to strengthen the thighs and build explosive speed. And they were not the first to discover this truth.

In the early 1900's, professional wrestler and strongman, George Hackenschmidt, aka "The Russian Lion" - recommended them - and he was built like the proverbial brick "out-house."

When I was a senior in high school I ran hill sprints two or three nights a week and they made the difference for me. I went from being an unranked, unrated nobody to a state finalist. I even beat the defending state champion in the quarterfinals, who ... incidentally, was a first-team all-state running back as well as a state champion in the 100-yard dash.

But when I wrestled in college, I rarely ran uphill wind sprints. I did LSD (long slow distance) instead. I ran miles and miles and miles. Although that type of running did help my conditioning, it didn’t give me optimum results. In fact, a five or six-mile run often left me feeling “strung out” and weak. It didn't give my body what it really needed: greater strength, increased stamina, as well as more speed and explosiveness.

In 1995, when I wrote my first book, The Martial Art of Wrestling, I pondered all these experiences and made note. Then, in 1997, whilst training for the Shuai-chiao Kung fu World title, I used the “school of hard knocks” knowledge I wrote about two years earlier and applied it toward the biggest goal of my life: Winning the gold medal in Beijing, China.

Two days per week I drove over to a long, winding hill in Santa Cruz, California. To warm-up I jogged up a hill that was nearly a half-mile long. Then I walked partway down the hill and began doing my sprint training.

The section of hill I ran was only about 70 to 100 meters long. But that’s all you need, even when you’re in awesome shape. The warm-up run over the entire length of the hill got my engine churning; now it was time to crank the heat.

Incidentally, I must point out that my first session on the hill that fine November, I was not ready for sprinting. It was ALL I could manage to jog up that hill – and at the top I began speaking in other tongues, if you know what I mean. So again, proceed with caution.

What I discovered when I ran those hills in 1997 went way beyond what I learned as a senior in high school. Yes, it confirmed what I wrote in 1995, but there was even more.

What did I discover? I found that I didn’t just get faster and more explosive. There was something more that I hadn’t counted on. And that something was as follows:

1. Hill Sprints Increase Muscle Mass

2. Hill Sprints Quickly Reduce Excess Bodyfat.

3. Hill Sprints Cause Your Body to Naturally Release More Growth Hormone - which means they help you stay young.

Not only that, but Hill Sprints increase your cardiovascular power even faster than running mega miles or doing long cardio. Just a couple 10-15 sessions of hill sprints per week will literally transform you into a machine. That’s why I cover them in my best-selling book and videos on Combat Conditioning.

Incidentally, I must point out that some people are not ready to go out and run hill sprints right away. The best course of action for most people to follow (after getting clearance from their doctor) is to start by walking uphill. This is followed by brisk walking. Once both of these activities get easier, you can see about jogging uphill. Next in line is running, then hard running - then ... ultimately, hill sprints.

Never assume that hill sprints are no big deal and that you can jump from a 20-year perch on the sofa to King of Mt. St. Helens. Work hills into your routine gradually. Or as Ben Franklin would say, “Make haste slowly.”

When you “work the hill,” be sure to combine the physical aspect of training with mental programming. If you’re an athlete who wants to win a title, imagine that you are racing to the top step of the victory stand. When you get to the top of the hill you should feel like Rocky Balboa did in the movie Rocky.

Use your imagination while you train. It will help you get more out of your training and it will increase the amount of confidence you have in yourself. The more you focus on an objective, the greater the likelihood it will come true.

When I ran the hills back in 1997, I focused on winning the world title – and it became a reality. Just as easily I could have focused on a health and fitness goal, a relationship goal, a wealth goal or the successful completion of a business venture. And if you want to know the truth, that’s what I do today. I cannot really explain “how” it works.

All I know is that it does, and that’s good enough for me.

Kick ass - take names!
matt furey

 

[mikeyb]

Uphill sprints without any prior training are a great way to get plagued with injuries - knees in particular. The key problem being "uphill". Both of the authors of the articles you quote say they had built up a base mileage before they started experimenting with this. You also say you did some jogging prior to trying them.

I'm not slamming the idea of hill sprints, which is a good one, but some guys are bound to read this and think "great, a way to get in shape fast" and some will go out and try it even though they've never done any running.

The best way to get started is NOT to walk or jog uphill like the author of the second article suggests but to build a base mileage running on flattish ground. Walking uphill won't work the same stabilizer muscles as running and the stress on the joints is different. As for jogging uphill it's too hard on the knees if you don't have prior training.

If you're looking for a sport that will give you great-looking legs and that you can take up even being out of shape cycling is certainly up there, but that's kinda off topic.