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A few months ago I came across the Uphill fitness training program. When I first heard about it, I admitted that I was a bit skeptical. Is it really that effective? Can something this simple really help me get into the shape I want to be in? However, now that I’ve tried it, I know it works. There are a number of things I like about it, but here are the 5 things I love about Hill Sprinting:
1. No equipment needed: One of the best things I love about running hills and making it part of my exercise routine is that it doesn’t involve a lot of fancy and expensive equipment. All I need is a good pair of shoes and a hill and I’m good to go. No machine to buy, no power supply required, no equipment to charge. I put on my shoes and head up the hill for the day.
2. Hill sprints work the whole body: You’ll use all of your body’s major muscle groups, which have been shown to burn more fat than traditional low-intensity cardio. Running hills makes your muscles strong and powerful. You know the more I do, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. After my first hill sprint workout, I realized that my entire body actually got a workout. I thought I would “feel the burn” more in my legs, but I was surprised when my arms were just as tired, if not a bit more, than my legs. Not only that, with proper running technique, I also feel like my core muscles are working as well. Yup, those abs work out too!
3. Hill sprinting is considered high intensity training. High intensity training has been shown to increase the natural production of human growth hormone. When you are young, HGH is the key to building muscle tissue. As you age, this hormone is a key fat burning factor in your body. So as you can see, increasing this hormone helps us on our way to our fitness goals and high intensity exercise does just that.
4. Quality, not quantity: I like the fact that low volume and high intensity beats high volume and low intensity. I don’t know about you, but I get bored running 30 minutes straight (or more) at the same pace. I LOVE how high intensity sprints on hills make me feel during training. It is not just a boring and monotonous task. It doesn’t even take long, but I feel fast and strong when I run. I feel like I’m getting in shape! Another great thing about this is that when it’s all said and done, I know I’ve had a great workout! If “making time” or “fitting exercise into your schedule” has been a big problem in sticking to a fitness routine, uphill fitness training is definitely something you should try.
5. It’s a family affair: One thing that makes an exercise program easier to stick to is having someone to do it with. A hill sprint program is the only program my whole family has been able to do together. I do it, my husband does it and my 10 year old daughter does it. My younger children who are not old enough also come with us and can “play” on the hill while we run. Because we don’t need a large area, it’s easy to keep an eye on the younger ones and still get our training done. Although my husband, daughter and I are at different levels physically, because we all use the same hill, we are all in constant contact during training and support each other. This would not be the case if we were all running laps around the track. Eventually, all our different rhythms would separate us quite far and we wouldn’t even be able to interact with each other during training. Riding a bike around the neighborhood is also fun, but what about the little ones? They can’t really keep up and we can’t pack every one of them. Hill sprinting has been a great way for our family to stay in shape and everyone to be together during practice. This is also the ONLY training I have been able to convince other family members to do. Every time we visit my in-laws and do our training (they have a big hill right next to it), someone always joins in!
Now, as you can imagine, there are other benefits to hill sprinting, but these are just the main factors that make it great for me. If you’d like to learn more about the other benefits of hill sprinting, whether you’re an athlete trying to improve your performance or someone trying to live a healthier life every day, visit http://www. fastpitchtalkradio.com/getfit .html. Find out what a simple hill sprint workout can do for you.