By now, if you're like me, you've read and heard a lot about interval training as one of the greatest ways to exercise. You've probably heard that, by alternating short bursts of high intensity exercise with periods of low intensity recovery, you can achieve some pretty incredible health and fitness goals.The Safest Interval Training Method
That's when I started to look around for a better way to run my intervals. And what I found worked wonders.
I decided to go back to basics. To go back to a workout that I had used in high school (and seen plenty of elite athletes incorporate into their training). The answer that I found to making interval training safer was: the hill sprint.
The only change I made to my interval training was to take it to a hill instead of sprinting on a flat. The difference was dramatic.
Less Chance of Injury
First of all, running intervals on an incline made all of my little nagging muscle pulls and tweaks disappear. I was able to train at a high intensity without having to worry about injury.
One reason for this is that sprinting on an incline decreases the impact that running has on your body. Flat surface sprinting can place a lot of pounding on your shins, knees and back. Hill sprints alleviate most of this high impact punishment. Studies have shown that adding even a slight incline to your running decreased the impact on your lower legs by as much as 26%.
Interval training on hills is also safer for your hamstrings – one of the most commonly seen sites of injury when increasing the intensity of your workouts. Because your stride is shortened slightly when going up hill, you tend not to over-stride and pull with your hamstrings. Instead, you plant closer under your center of gravity, changing the focus to your "pushing" leg muscles. This means you can run fast, and have less of a chance of pulling the old hammies.
Get Results Faster
The second reason that hill sprinting is a great way to interval train is that it's an easy way to increase the intensity of your workout, no matter what your current level of fitness is. Just by going up a hill (or stairs, or bleachers), the intensity of your workout is automatically increased. If you currently walk, walking uphill will be "high" intensity. If you can sprint, sprinting uphill will raise the intensity even further. And if you are somewhere in between, the hill will provide the same benefits.
All of this means that you can instantly do interval training. You don't have to work up as gradually as you would doing flat sprints. Your progression from walking to sprinting can be done in a shorter period of time.
Get More Done in Less Time
Finally, using hills for interval training can decrease the length of your workouts. Again, because the incline raises the intensity, it is not necessary to go as far or as long as you would with flat surface intervals. Give them a try and you'll be surprised how fast you are "huffing and puffing" as recommended for maximum health benefits.
If you've been putting off the start of your interval training because you don't want to get hurt, I've just given you a solution to your problem. Taking your intervals to the hills, stairs or bleachers will allow you to start RIGHT NOW. This training can be safer than flat intervals and just as effective. In fact, potentially even more effective in a given period of time.
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