Hill Sprints, Your New Best Friend?

Can't go to the gym but you know you have to train? Do you hate jogging with a passion but need some extra conditioning?

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Then try hill sprints! Hill sprints are one of the best tools in your training arsenal and are underutilized by almost all athletes. Hills sprints will improve lower body power, improve your conditioning, and allow you to train outside and away from the gym.

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Lower body power is one of the most important assets for any athlete. Squats are great for increasing leg strength for sure, but hill sprints offer a nice change. Think about, when sprinting a hill, you drive your entire body up an incline as forcefully and powerfully as possible. The will force your leg muscles to contract as quickly and as hard as possible to send you up the hill. Sprints are also unilateral, meaning one leg pushes at time, this will help improve muscular imbalance. Also, you are removing the load from your back. So, if you are always squatting but feeling stale, do hill sprints instead. Your legs will still get stronger, and the different stimulus will be refreshing.

Hill sprints also improve ankle strength, ankle strength is forgotten by most athletes but it is very important for any sport that requires sudden changes in direction.Ever wonder why sprinters are so damn lean? A solid Sprint workout elevates your metabolism tremendously for about 24 hours. I am not sure of all the science behind it, but when I do a lot of sprinting, I lean out quickly and am always amazed at out much my appetite increases.

If you train the sprints hard, in an interval format for example, you will be breathing hard and burning off that bacon. Also, you will be improving your conditioning while moving fast, not slow like jogging. You will be getting faster and leaner at the same time!!!!

The best part about a hill sprints, is that they are FREE, and you can't do them for very long because they are some damn hard. I usually do about 20-30 sprint workouts with push-ups mixed in and then I am spent. No 1-2 hours in the gym that day. Plus, I get to train in the sun, which I always love.

You can find the original article here: http://kettlebellplanet.blogspot.com/2008/01/hills-sprints-your-new-best-friend.html

Hill Sprints, Your New Best Friend?

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