Whats everyones opinion on the benifits of hill sprints?
Do them
I think they are pretty much THE best way to get in shape for most sports, including baseball, basketball, lacrosse, etc.
Make sure you build up a base of running first…hopefully you can run at a solid pace for 30 minutes without getting winded or tired?
I’ve been doing them for years, and they help immensely with sports. I’m 37, and I can still hang with the 20-something crowd in basketball and flag football.
That being said, they don’t really make your legs bigger. Just stronger and recuperate faster.
I have a steep hill in my backyard, it takes me about 24 seconds to sprint to the top. I’ve been averaging 2-3 workouts a week on it for about 10 years, usually in the warm months.
I set my stopwatch to either 20 minutes, or 30 minutes, and try to get either 15-16 sprints in 20 minutes, or around 22 sprints in 30 minutes.
It averages out to a sprint every 1:30. Basically I sprint for 24 seconds, and then take 1 minute to go back down to the bottom of the hill. Sometimes it’s harder to go back down when my legs start shaking.
The last half of the hill gets REALLY steep, I’m not running but instead I look like I’m speed skating to the top. I try to emphasize my exlosive power at that point.
In March I did my first sprint workout all winter long, and only got 6 sprints in 20 minutes. THAT was a rough day. 
Good luck.
They are hard. You have to work harder. It’s like a sprint on steroids.
I bike up hills, better for my knees same benefit more fun. Thinking of getting rollerblades and doing same up hill.
They hit the glutes and hammies pretty nice. Great if you wanna develop explosiveness on demand.
You’ll sleep like a rock.
[quote]dharmabum31 wrote:
You’ll sleep like a rock.[/quote]
so true. I once layed down between sprints because I was so sleepy. They really help me in terms of leg drive and explosiveness. They seem to help with my sprinting form too.
Ultimate sprint: Hill sprint with weight vest, parachute, and weight sled.
Hahaha, got to try that by the end of the summer.
The sled makes sense, and the vest, but a parachute? I don’t think most peopel can sprint up a hill fast enough for a parachute to increase the difficulty that much, I thought its main purpose was for level running where the speed and air resistance would be higher.
A downhill sprint with a parachute would be fun, could we take off?
[quote]tyciol wrote:
The sled makes sense, and the vest, but a parachute? I don’t think most peopel can sprint up a hill fast enough for a parachute to increase the difficulty that much, I thought its main purpose was for level running where the speed and air resistance would be higher.
A downhill sprint with a parachute would be fun, could we take off?[/quote]
…3 years later.
Give them the “Wendler Test”.
You can apply this test to any assistance or cardio work:
If its awesome, do it. If your Mom can do it, don’t.
works for me.
lb
Whats wendles test? i would like to try it
I got huge hill in pratically my back yard. The kids use it for sledding. Steep Bi**ch. I will run it tomorrow. If I die, I love you all.
*wendler
[quote]AntonioFlores wrote:
Whats wendles test? i would like to try it[/quote]
This is the Wendler Test…
If its awesome, do it. If your Mom can do it, don’t
They’re fucking bitches. The steeper and the longer the hill, the more likely I am to throw up.
And that’s why I love them.
Wendler is from Chicago, as am I. I don’t want to put words in the man’s mouth but discussed this with him years ago and the reality of things is this is an absolutely Walter Payton inspired phenomenon.
If you grew up in Chitown during his era, you would see video on the nightly news of Payton running hills, repping heavy weight, and just basically being the workaholic and incredible athlete he was. He inspired literally countless people.
Payton is a big part of why I lift weights (along with Coan) and the image of him running hills and repping 405 on bench is etched in my memory. Hell, I have had 3 dogs named for him (including one of the dogs in my avatar…Walter the weiner dog.)
Lastly, jogging beats the crap out of me, always has. I get bruised heels, shin splints, etc. I am just not built for endurance shit.
However, sled drags followed up by hill springs is rock and roll. I think you should probably spare the ‘sprint’ until you are warmed up but we have found doing pulls first then sprinting works really well and I find it really doesn’t have any negative effect on my recovery and helps with conditioning and body composition.
Can’t wait until all the snow is gone so we can break out the implements and get after it.
Just did my first round of hill sprints. Pretty damn steep hill off the high school that the football team uses.
Did 20 of them, 10 pretty good, the next 5 were “ah shit” the Last 5, well, MY GOD
Hammies and Ass were on fire. I hope I felt them in the right spot.
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
Wendler is from Chicago, as am I. I don’t want to put words in the man’s mouth but discussed this with him years ago and the reality of things is this is an absolutely Walter Payton inspired phenomenon.
If you grew up in Chitown during his era, you would see video on the nightly news of Payton running hills, repping heavy weight, and just basically being the workaholic and incredible athlete he was. He inspired literally countless people.
Payton is a big part of why I lift weights (along with Coan) and the image of him running hills and repping 405 on bench is etched in my memory. Hell, I have had 3 dogs named for him (including one of the dogs in my avatar…Walter the weiner dog.)
Lastly, jogging beats the crap out of me, always has. I get bruised heels, shin splints, etc. I am just not built for endurance shit.
However, sled drags followed up by hill springs is rock and roll. I think you should probably spare the ‘sprint’ until you are warmed up but we have found doing pulls first then sprinting works really well and I find it really doesn’t have any negative effect on my recovery and helps with conditioning and body composition.
Can’t wait until all the snow is gone so we can break out the implements and get after it.[/quote]
I’m not from Chicago, but when I was around 10 years old I got a book on some of the greatest running backs of all time. The chapter on Walter Payton talked about him running hills, needless to say I was running hills that summer!