Brutal and Effective Hill Sprints
There was a massive, steep hill right around the corner from my first apartment. The hill was wayyyy too long to sprint the entire thing for more than a couple repetitions. It took me 30 seconds+ to make it all the way to the top, and I was basically walking by that point anyway due to fatigue. Without knowing why, I found it much more effective to only sprint up halfway, then walk down and repeat until I ran out of gas. I had a love/hate relationship with that hill.
The concept behind hill sprints is simple. Sprint up, walk down, repeat. It isn’t sexy, it’s free, and it’s brutally effective. It’s been around for decades, with good reason.
Hill sprints are different from sprints on flat ground because there’s significant resistance from gravity involved. Your top speed will be much lower than if you were sprinting with the same effort on a track. There is also less impact on the lower legs since your speed is slower and the ground is rising on each stride.
Done properly, training hill sprints increases how well your strongest and most explosive muscle fibers utilize oxygen. As a result, you’ll be able to maintain your explosive strength and power for longer periods of time.
Besides actually doing them, finding a good hill is the biggest challenge, and a treadmill isn’t a great substitute. If you don’t have access to a good hill, load up a very heavy dragging sled and do the workout below with that. Stairs can also be used, but anecdotally I don’t find them to be quite as effective.
Here’s my go-to hill sprint workout:
10-15 second all-out sprint
Walk down the hill (about 30 seconds active rest)
Repeat 10-20 times
Very simple. The keys to an effective hill workout: use a short distance, all-out effort, and short rest periods. You can include hill sprints in your program 1-2x per week.
If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me