Sprinting in the Rain

There’s more than one way to reach the top of your physical peak, but wouldn’t you like to get there faster?

Hill Sprints!

There is an abundance of positive benefits to be gained from hill sprints, the incline hill helps develop strength and power, and teaches both athletes & amateurs to fire the right muscles in the right order so they get maximum acceleration. 

Interval Training:

H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training) involves bursts of explosive exertion over a short period of time with interval rest periods. With interval training, there’s an elevated production of energy that can enhance the cardiovascular system, improve body composition, increase athletic and recreational performance, and increase anaerobic/muscular strength.

Anaerobic exercise also contributes to developing a greater lactate threshold.

Fat Loss:

It’s been shown again and again that HIIT is the best method for boosting metabolism throughout the entire day due to the intensity of the activity. This contrasts with jogging which minimally boasts metabolism in comparison.

Fitness:

Explosive maximal effort style training produces many adaptations. These short hill sprints evoke an increase in the maximal stroke volume of heart. This is a fairly complicated cardiologic discussion but simply stated, stroke volume is the amount of blood that can be pumped from the heart in one stoke. A greater stroke volume decreases the heart rate and, in a sense, makes the heart more efficient.

Lung capacity is also forced to increase over time to deal with the increased workload. Another unspoken lung benefit from hill sprints is the body’s ability to manage O2 and CO2 levels better, making the body use O2 more efficiently.

Explosive:

Hill sprints evoke the recruitment of Type 2 muscle fibres, these fibres are fast twitch. Simply put, these muscle fibres output the most explosive power and are crucial to speed development.

Neuromuscular pathways are strengthened and/or increased, building a stronger brain to muscle connection. Your central nervous system will be stimulated to activate more motor units. Think of motor units as spark plugs in a car, we want them all firing for maximal power production.

Gait:

Training on an incline will create a more natural stride, this happens due to the knee being forced to lift higher to climb the gradient. This improvement in gait leads to a more natural and powerful stride.

Muscular Development:

Forcing the body into a maximal power output encourages adaptations in muscular development. Power will increase through the entire posterior chain; due to the incline particular activation will occur in the Glutes which are the power house of sprinting. Hamstrings will also increase in muscularity and efficiency, along with Calfs and Quads. This new dynamic power will add efficiency to your running on flat surfaces, creating the ability to increase cadence on demand with ease.

Safety:

The beautiful aspect of hill sprinting is that the inclined surface prevents you from reaching top speed while running because of the resisting pull of gravity. That, with the short time periods of exertion reduces the possibility of injury further.

But!

A well thought out and planned dynamic warm up is essential before all exercise to avoid an injury and to prepare the body for activity.

How to:

This is where interval training gets its name. Hill sprints are preformed in intervals; a sample program would look like this:

Sprint: 10-12secs

Rest: 60-90secs

Repeat: 8-10 times

Programs can be changed and advanced for different goals by changing the time periods of sprints and/or rest, along with number of sprints performed.

REACH THE TOP BY SPRINTING TO IT!