Question for those who know: Hill SPRINTS or Hill BOUNDS?

220 is awfully long for an "all-out sprint" Other than that I 'd say it is where the workout is located in the season. Bounding takes quite a bit of fitness and is very tough on the legs and central nervous system. 22 x hill would be high level of fitness, early to mid season. Lower number of bounds on a much shorter hill, mid to 85% of season.

I've found that when doing hill sprints or watching other runners do them that it's difficult to maintain good form throughout the exercise as you often concentrate more on reaching the top of the hill as fast as possible. By doing this, I think runners really miss out on the range of benefits that hill exercises can provide as a conditioner or transition phase between base periods and more intense track or event-specific training.

The full Lydiard hill circuit has the runner employing one of three exercises uphill: Steep Uphill Running, Hill Bounding and Hill Springing. There is video footage available on the Lydiard Foundation website as well as detailed instruction both on this forum in the "Lydiard or Daniels" thread and on the foundation website. By concentrating hard on good form and explosive movement, these exercises build incredible strength through the legs and increase flexibility in the ankles.

Once somewhat recovered at the top of the hill, Lydiard recommended fast downhill running - ideally on a gentler slope - to work on fast leg turnover. Runners can also add some short 'windsprints'/strides at the base of the hill on flat ground to further work on form and leg turnover before beginning the circuit again on the uphill. The classic circuit apparently took 15 mins in total. When I did it over this winter, it took around 8 mins due to a shorter hill etc but I saw real improvement in my running doing 4 per session. They are hard but well worth it.

Funny, few hours ago I was thinking about exactly same thing. Especially I wonder if hill bounds works good for runner who run in flats or just want to keep such style, i.e. would hill bounding works for Kenyan runners?

Some of these exercises are designed for "western" style of running and might be disastrous for other styles.

(bookmarking this thread)

Why hill sprints OR hill bounds, and not hill sprints AND hill bounds ? In fact, a good interpretation of the 2 workouts has a different goal.

1) HILL SPRINTS

The interpretation is : MAX SPEED, using high frequency with very high knees. Recovery is not important (1' or 2' or 3'), important is to start the next sprint when you are nervously ready. Physiological objective : RECRUITMENT OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE PERCENTAGE OF FIBERS in the muscules working.

This type of training is strictly connected with the nervous system. When an athlete runs slowly, he uses only a little percentage of the fibres of his muscles. Increasing speed, the percentage increases. Only running at the MAX possible speed it's possible to recruit the highest percentage of fibres. When for too long time an athlete doesn't use max speed, his ability in recruitment fibres decreases, and, when in competition he has to ask something to the FULL muscle, the answer is very poor. This is the only way for giving to the athlete the KEY for opening the door of the STORE, where he can find more energy for a final sprint (in case of lactic events like 800 / 1500m) or more fuel (after finishing glycogen in his slow fibers) in case of marathon.

So, short sprint uphill can enhance the ability in MAX SPEED (because there is an improvement in STRENGTH), and in ENDURANCE (in case of marathon runners), because they can find a reserve of fuel to use, coming from fast twich fibers.

The way to use hill sprints is as follow :

LENGTH / DURATION : 80/100m (12" / 15")

INTENSITY : Max

RECOVERY : Full

GRADIENT : 8-12 %

REPETITIONS : 10-15 (no more, because the nervous concentration, if the interpretation is ok, goes to decrease)

PERIOD : All the season. I used short hill sprints (10 x 60m) many times the morning of the day of the competition (if on track, by night), or the previous day in case of race in the morning. There is not really physical fatigue, as the production of lactate is very little. Full recovery is important in order to fully remove lactate.

2) HILL BOUNDS

This exercise is more connected with the development of MUSCULAR STRENGTH, less connected with the recruitment. The athlete has to bound using long jumps from one foot to the other, giving attention to the elastic reactivity of his feet. After a first period (during the GENERAL PERIOD of training, going to the FUNDAMENTAL) where this exercise is carried on distances of 30-50m, and the speed is not important, because the goal is to DEVELOP ELASTIC REACTIVITY.

After this first period, the athlete must increase the speed, bounding with steps longest possible, for the same distance (30-50m). In this case, this exercise has the goal to increase STRENGTH of the contractile fibres, not only the REACTIVITY of the elastic fibres.

The way to use HILL BOUNDS is as follows :

LENGTH : 30-50m

GRADIENT : 6-8 %

INTENSITY : 80% (general period), 90 % (fundamental period), 100% (special period)

RECOVERY : Full

REPETITIONS : 6-8 times

PERIOD : No in the SPECIFIC season

In the first long period of preparation (general and fundamental period, practically all Winter), athletes can use a MIXED system (Circuits for increasing STRENGTH ENDURANCE using both sprints and technical exercises : for example, 50m sprint + 30m bounding + 50m sprint + 30m heels to buttocks + 50m sprint + 30m skipping + 80m sprint, and at the end 10 squat-jumps on the same place). We need to use long recovery in this case (may be 6'/8') because in any case athletes must use MAX intensity in every part of the circuit, otherwise there is NO RECRUITMENT OF FIBRES IN LACTIC SITUATION.

This is the best system for building the ability in final sprint. Nothing to do with the MAX SPEED of an athlete, but with the ability in recruitment high percentage of fibres when muscles are full of lactate.

Mr. Canova,

When you say Recovery - FULL, does that pertain to a certain time? Or just when your body tells you it is fully able to go again?

After a short sprint of 80m uphill, with top athletes normally 1'30" / 2' are enough, but with 800m runners sometimes we use about 3'. In any case, when we speak about FULL RECOVERY we mean that the athlete can start again when feels himself totally ready for repeating the same time previously run.

One rule about EVERY TRAINING having the goal to develop strength : THE FIRST STEP IS TO USE MAX CONCENTRATION AND MAX INTENSITY. This means that recovery is not important.

One rule about EVERY TRAINING having the goal to develop STRENGTH ENDURANCE (ability in using a high percentage of your max strength for long time) : THE FIRST STEP IS TO CUT RECOVERY TIME INCREASING THE GLOBAL VOLUME OF TRAINING. In this case, recovery time is one of the most important components.

Mr. Canova,

Say you are a 4:00 miler and a 1:48 half miler in the NCAA and also do cross country. For an athlete like that, where would you start if you were just beginning to do hill sprints? Would you start with 80m/10-12 seconds hill sprinting or would you start 200m/30 seconds hill running? I know they work a different system, and I was wondering which system should be first developed.

Thanks,

Descartes

The 2 workouts you propose have different goals. Short sprints (how I explained before) are very important for the recruitment of the most part of fibers of the muscles involved in the exercise. This goal is important during the full season, and that's the reason because we have to use this type of training always. The final goal is to stimulate the NERVOUS SYSTEM.

Hill 200m long have already different mean. The production of lactate is already significative, and we can use for increasing the ability in recruiting fibers WHILE saturated with lactate.

When you start to use in training 200m uphill, the evolution of this workout is TO EXTEND THE DISTANCE, so, trying to maintain the same speed, the athlete have to move to 250 - 300 - 400m, obviously opening recovery time. The target is to increase the ability in running with high accumulation of lactate, so the final goal is to stimulate METABOLIC and ENZYMATIC SYSTEM.

Using long and very fast distances uphill (between 300 and 600m) can give a big improvement in STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and an improvement in strength endurance can automatically provoke a good performance, also without any specific training on track. Some year ago, the Italian Giuseppe D'Urso (silver medal in 800m in WCh 1993) ran the best indoor seasonal time (1:45.47) in the World, without preparing the season, but only using long fast run for developing AEROBIC POWER (between 20' and 40'), plus intervals of 400 - 600m uphill, at his max speed, with long recovery.

Thanks for the information. One last question: if you had never done hills before and looking to implement them into your training, which would you start with?

Descartes

Im a Masters sprinter. 60,100,200 and 400m. Do you recommend hill training during season? If yes why. How about down hill for turn over. I really feel like I get a lot from this work out.

Im a Masters Sprinter. Can hill training be effective during the season? Is down hill training recommended for turnover?

Bump.

To anyone who knows, should these be done after strides or instead of strides?

Do the hill sprints instead of strides, they are so similar you don't need to do both. You can do them after an easy run just like strides. I'm not as familiar with hill bounds.

laughingostrich wrote:

Do the hill sprints instead of strides, they are so similar you don't need to do both. You can do them after an easy run just like strides. I'm not as familiar with hill bounds.

I may have a vocabulary problem here, but what I understand as hill sprints (Canova describes them very well, above) are NOT AT ALL similar to what I understand as strides (easy accelerations to 80-90% of top speed, focusing on turnover; get your breath back, then go again).

Strides you can certainly do after an easy run. (Though I recommend also experimenting with ~10mins of warmup running; striders; *then* your easy run.) Hill sprints, like any other CNS-focused work, should take place *early* in a training session, after an adequate warmup (which might well include a few accelerations on the flat, to loosen up).

They're different activities, serving different purposes. If, however, you were forced to choose between the two activities, I'd recommend that, most of the time, you go with the hill sprints.

I am in base phase now so maybe one day of each per week?

marke wrote:

I am in base phase now so maybe one day of each per week?

That might work. Or, in base phase, maybe one day with hill sprints and two with strides; or, from one week to the next, maybe alternate with two of one, one of the other during one week, then switch the next.

Most people should just make sure they avoid doing CNS stuff two days in a row. A day (or better, for many, at least two days) off between CNS sessions is necessary.

lease wrote:

marke wrote:

I am in base phase now so maybe one day of each per week?

That might work. Or, in base phase, maybe one day with hill sprints and two with strides; or, from one week to the next, maybe alternate with two of one, one of the other during one week, then switch the next.

Most people should just make sure they avoid doing CNS stuff two days in a row. A day (or better, for many, at least two days) off between CNS sessions is necessary.

thanks. what is CNS? central nervous system?

marke wrote:

thanks. what is CNS? central nervous system?

Yes, sorry. The central nervous system is the one that receives a major stimulus when you do high-intensity work--because, as Canova said, you're trying to recruit a high number of motor units simultaneously. Even if you take substantial breaks to keep lactate levels low in this kind of work (and you should!), the CNS can become depleted by high-intensity work and requires time to restore itself. This is a major reason why (most) sprinters should not do true top-speed work on a daily basis, why weightlifters should do max lifts (for a given muscle group) only once every few days, etc.