Performing hill sprint workouts carries benefits of sprinting on flat ground but with the added bonuses of increased difficulty as well as a reduced risk of injury. Sprinting in general is one of the most effective ways you can increase your fitness, total body speed and power output as well as burning a ton of calories if your goal is to lose body fat. Here are our top 5 reasons why hill sprints should form part of your cardio routine as well. Scroll to the bottom for a hill sprint workout and warmup that you can try out for yourself.
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1. Protect your Body
Sprinting uphill carries less of an injury risk than sprinting on flat ground. Your joints won’t take as much of a pounding because the amount of impact is reduced when compared to sprinting on flat ground. In addition to this, it is not possible to achieve your maximum limb speed due to the inclined surface and this reduces your risks of a pulled muscle.
2. Burn a Ton of Calories
Sprinting of flat ground is already great for burning calories and adding an extra element of difficulty can increase the calorie burning potential even more! Uphill sprinting is like sprinting whilst dragging a heavy object behind you, making it similar to something like a prowler push. Think of it as somewhere in between sprinting and weight lifting – there’s a reason sprinters have some of the best physiques on the planet!
3. Get Outdoors
If you’re used to performing all your workouts inside the gym then you’ll be surprised by how good it feels to exercise outdoors. Some of the benefits of hill sprints that you may not have thought of are working on your tan and getting your daily dose of vitamin D! Getting enough vitamin D can help to lower your risk of a number of serious health conditions including cancer, heart disease and auto-immune conditions.
4. Challenge the Hill
If an activity involves overcoming an obstacle, there is a greater sense of achievement attached to that activity. For example, you would feel happier with yourself for squatting 220 pounds than for squatting just your body weight. This same principle applies to the hill, when you start to see it at your enemy and refuse to let it beat you, you will be surprised by how hard you can push yourself!
5. Get Functional
What exercise could be more functional than sprinting? It’s our default method of moving quickly – we were designed to do it! Sprinting will help to transfer the strength you build in the gym into real-world, functional strength.
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Hill Sprint HIIT Workout
Warmup:
- 1 minute walking
- 20 high knees
- 20 heel flicks
- 10 ‘open the gates’
- 10 ‘close the gates’
- 20 ankle circles
- 20 shoulder circles
- 10 hip rotations
- 10 spine twists
- 10 bodyweight squats
- 10 bodyweight walking lunges
- 30 seconds bouncing on toes
- 1 minute gentle jogging
Sprints:
- 25m sprint at 50% effort
- 25m sprint at 75% effort
- 25m sprint at 90% effort
- 5 x 50m Hill Sprints at 100% effort (60s rest in between each sprint)
- 1 minute gentle jogging to warm down