Leg strength and endurance
You do not have to be a runner to want and need strong legs. As you age, weak legs can be the cause of trips and falls that lead to injury. Strong legs mean better balance, better health, and better fitness. A deficiency in leg strength and endurance is an area which can affect the function of individuals in everyday life, not just those who run. You use your legs no matter what you do, whether at work, your hobbies, or while doing sports.
If you want to strengthen your legs and improve your endurance, you can do that through fitness. A great form of fitness for leg strength is hill sprints. With this form of exercise you get a lot of calorie expenditure, much greater than the flat sprints of the same distance. Hill sprints can benefit your muscles as much as weight lifting, and are great for you physically as well as mentally.
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So, let's take a look at home to do hill sprints for the best benefits for your legs:
You can do one of two kinds of hill sprints, you can run up a long gradual incline, or a short steep incline.
Before you do any sort of run, or sprint, you want to make sure that you warm up and stretch. A warm up is time spent in movement similar to that which you will perform later. This movement should slightly raise your heart rate and prepares your muscles for action. Spend at least five to ten minutes warming up.
Ok, now let's take a look at the difference between long gradual hills and short steep inclines:
Long-gradual incline
Hill sprints over a long- gradual incline will train your legs for endurance first and strength second.
Short-steep incline
Hill sprints on a short-steep incline will train your legs from a strength aspect, with endurance being an added benefit.
When running your hill sprints for leg strength and endurance, you will get the best results if your form or technique is right. You want to have a strong leg drive, you want to use your arms for efficiency, and you do not want to be too bent over, rather have a stable core.
Last but not least, if you want to be able to continue with hill sprints for building your leg strength and endurance, you want to be sure to do some sort of recovery. The beauty of the hill sprint is that it is both concentric and eccentric movements. In other words, your muscles shorten as you go up the hill, and they lengthen as you go down. This is great for the muscles, but it also means that you will likely be sore about 24-48 hours after you do the sprints. You can reduce this soreness, and aid in your recovery by stretching after and holding each stretch for at least thirty seconds, and by doing a cool down jog to keep the muscles fluid and moving. If you find that you are sore, you may want to massage the muscles, and try hydrotherapy. Do not give up, doing hill sprints regularly, with rest in between is very beneficial to the strength and endurance of your legs. So, if you get really sore after the first time you try this form of exercise, do it again and the second time, just be sure to stretch more after, and do a better cool down.
Leg strength and endurance means a healthier, more active life with less worry of falls and injury. So practice exercises that help build in these two areas.
