Hill Sprints
Hill sprints are my favorite thing to do to improve my conditioning/ cardio. I've done them for the past 20 years. When I used to play sports I used to do hill sprints 3-4 times a week.
Benefits of Hill Sprints
With all these benefits you might be wondering why hill sprints don't get recommended very often. The reason is there isn't any money to be made from it.
How to do Hill Sprints
If you're new to running, I would recommend spending some time building up your running before you start adding sprints. Hill sprints aren't something you want to do if you're out of shape and haven't trained in years.
Simply find a hill and sprint up it. Walk or jog down and repeat. I recommend jogging 10-15 minutes before and after the sprints to warm up and cool down.
There isn't a set routine I can give you as it will depend on what hills you have near you, and your fitness level. You'll have to use a bit of trial and error. Start slow and then gradually increase how many sprints you do, how fast you sprint, or decrease the rest between sprints (jog down instead of walking down).
When I lived in Ipswich, I used to have loads of different hills to use ranging daily steep and taking 45+seconds to run, and extremely steep but it only takes 10 seconds to sprint. How many sprints I did in a workout would depend on how steep, and how long the hill was.
Benefits of Hill Sprints
- Improve your cardiovascular fitness.
- Develops lower body power.
- Great calorie burner
- Less chance of injury compared to normal sprinting. Hill sprints prevent you from reaching end-range hip and knee extension with your landing leg, which is when most hamstring pulls occur. The hill also prevents you from reaching a great speed which helps reduces the chances of injury.
- It improves mental toughness.
- Get to train outside.
- It's good for all-round fitness. When I'm doing hill sprints regularly, I could play a sport I hadn't played for years and be fitter than most of the other players who had been playing regularly.
- You'll never be too advanced for hill sprints
- It will help you recover quicker in between sets quicker when you're lifting weights.
With all these benefits you might be wondering why hill sprints don't get recommended very often. The reason is there isn't any money to be made from it.
How to do Hill Sprints
If you're new to running, I would recommend spending some time building up your running before you start adding sprints. Hill sprints aren't something you want to do if you're out of shape and haven't trained in years.
Simply find a hill and sprint up it. Walk or jog down and repeat. I recommend jogging 10-15 minutes before and after the sprints to warm up and cool down.
There isn't a set routine I can give you as it will depend on what hills you have near you, and your fitness level. You'll have to use a bit of trial and error. Start slow and then gradually increase how many sprints you do, how fast you sprint, or decrease the rest between sprints (jog down instead of walking down).
When I lived in Ipswich, I used to have loads of different hills to use ranging daily steep and taking 45+seconds to run, and extremely steep but it only takes 10 seconds to sprint. How many sprints I did in a workout would depend on how steep, and how long the hill was.