Showing posts with label Sprints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sprints. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hill Sprints For Martial Artists

If you want to improve your cardiovascular conditioning and endurance as fast as possible then I have two words that will work wonders for your conditioning in this area, hill sprints. Keep in mind this is anaerobic training which most closely resembles martial arts competition which is shorter in duration and involves intervals of explosive movement mixed with lighter movement.

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What I love most about this form of training is that it doesn't take long to perform a workout or start seeing real results. But be warned that this is an advanced form of training and you should consult a physician before performing this or any other form of exercise.

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With that out of the way let's take a deeper look at hill sprints.

The only prerequisite for performing hill sprints is that you'll need to have access to a hill where you can perform them. A 45 degree angle or greater hill is ideal and you'll need a distance where you can sprint for at least 10 seconds or up to 20 seconds. You begin by properly warming up and stretching for 10-15 minutes, you can warm up by lightly jogging and stretching out your legs before undertaking the the much harder portion of the workout that will be the sprints.

Once the warm up is out of the way you'll want to do one light trial run up the hill to get a perspective of what your dealing with as well as prepare yourself mentally and physically. Then you'll be ready for the real thing.

Then from the bottOm of the hill, sprint up as fast as you can. This type of training works best using intervals so after your first sprint up hill, preferably for 10 seconds if you're starting out. Then you'll jog down the hill and jog for another minute on flat land before performing another hill sprint and again follow with 1 minute of jogging. You might want to break up your intervals with one minute rest periods if you need to then repeat the hill sprints for five to ten times.

Once you're done you'll want to finish up with a cool down period consisting of some light stretching and walking, (while you're cursing me for convincing you to try this).

You'll obviously want to increase the duration of the sprints every time you train, you can also get really crazy and buy a weight vest. This will enable you to add 20-40lbs of weight to your frame for some hardcore training. But don't say I didn't warn you, this training is extreme and you'll have to be well conditioned and prepared to attempt hill sprints with an additional load.

After 2 months of this type of training you'll want to take a couple of weeks off to prevent over-training.

Hill Sprints For Martial Artists

HILL

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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?

hilleberg

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?

HILL