just wondering…
Very broad question, but any answers are appreciated.
btw I am wondering of the affects for Linebackers.
I have 2 examples for you.
Sweetness
Jerry Rice
Both ran hills, both are the best at their positions. EVER!!!
It is a great compliment to speed and agility training. Things you need to pay attention to is form, don’t let it break down when you fatigue. Don’t run down hill (teaches bad things like breaking).
As far as which is better, in my opinion hills, but you have to do some flat running to allow your nervous system to adapt to what improvements you have made.
If you do a search about volume and speed training you should find some information as to how much and how often.
If you can get the GPP DVD from the store of this site, you’ll see the logic behind hills and its potential to any such sport.
Or check out this thread for more info on hill sprints http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=6434.
That will wet your appetite for sure.Get the DVD
ya, walter payton ran up hills that were at least a 45 degree angle. he got the research from the russians at the time. watch his sportcentury on espn
It all depends on the type of hill we are talking about (grade) as well as the mode and frequency of this type of training (How many hills, how much rest, how often etc.) From there we can discuss if football linebackers could benefit.
My estimate would be a 55 degree incline. Twice a week with flat ground plyometrics twice a week and lifting 5 days a week, 2 days off per week.
I’ll look into the GPP DVD and the walter payton thing too, thanks.
55 degree incline. Damn thats steep. Acceleration strength and Acceleration mechanics are out of the question but I think those hills can be used to general leg strength and conditioning/work capacity.
Giving it more thought I really couldnt give a fair estimation of the steepness… There are other hills I can find in my area also… At what amount of steepness would be optimum? And if it’s steeper or less steep than that, what would be hte effects?
btw i will be ordering that within hte month, as soon as i get the money
to be honest its probably in the 35 to 40 range… After looking at what 55 degrees actually looks like and seeing what 35 to 40 looks like… Yea… definitely 35 to 40 degrees
Just read this. You can see walter payton doing hills on a old video put out by sports illustrated called “crunch time”. By the way, da bears had their best years of training during the mid eighties.
Would stair running be an alternative to hills? Not the same but some people live in Kansas and what not. Also, I see that these guys are workout warriors but I also see that they trained themselves into the ground. Good if they were a Navy Seal but i onder if this was the best for explosin. Jerry Rice ran perfect routes but was not the fastest.
The Eastern Bloc countries did some work on step-ups with weight, there’s an article on it here:
The way Jerry Rice ran hills is NOT the way any other sane person should be running hills (if you want to get faster). Jerry Rice ran hills excessively, sometimes to the point of puking and exhaustion. To get faster, most hills ran will be in the alactic zone (less than 8 seconds). The reason the hills help are not only that it’s less fatiguing on the CNS because your not movinig as fast, but by changing the angle of the ground your teaching your body to run in the correct form for acceleration when you dont yet have the strength levels and coordination to hold that form on flat ground. I hope that makes sense. Charlie explains it a lot better than I do.
As far as I stair running, I believe it was mentioned somewhere that stairs can substitute for hills when they are the only option, but an effort should be made by the athlete to keep the stride length as natural as possible on the stairs. Good luck with that though.
Agree:regarding Rice. I believe the hills he was running would take 10+ minutes to finish.
Yes make sure you keep it alactic.
One thing with hills though is make sure you have decent mechanics because they emphasize “push running” largely by taking the hamstrings out of the movement and some already have a problem with that. If you’re one of those guys who tends to run with a low center of gravity and excessive knee bend you’re probably much faster off the start then you are at max V anyway, comparatively, so hill sprints probably aren’t the best option for you.
Beavemonk…
I think KellyB hit on what I was gonna say pretty good, I read in a study that " the duration and magnitude of the biceps femoris’s electrical activity increases. This makes uphill running valuable. Why? Because finding an exercise where the biceps femoris works harder than in top speed sprinting is not easy." So hills hit the biceps femoris and take a lot of stress off the hammies ( I think??? I could be misinterpreting this…) In terms of more useful exercises for sprinting I think others on this forum should be able to help out (I couldn’t beat rock) but perhaps you could incorporate some hurdling exercises for sprint speed??? In the same article as above it says “Hurdling exercises are even more valuable for sprint training. When runnning hurdles, the speed of muscle lengthening during the the yeilding phase of attacking the hurdle and during the lowering of the leg is higher than in straight running. For training purposes a sprinter can use any height of hurdle and in any combination , attack a hurdle with either leg. Also one can do the unsupported phase of the exercises on a trampolne where the period of weightlessness last longer.” Not sure if this is a good idea to implement this into your training, linebackers need more than just straight away speed, you must be able to cut and all that good stuff…hopefully some footballa’s on here can help you better than I can…good luck with the season! 
peace
ummmm…i think you may be misinterpreting that, or i’m misunderstanding what you are trying to say because…the biceps femoris is part of the hammies…don’t know how the hills could take stress off the hammies if you are saying hills hit the BF???
yeah good point I am an idiot…
Don’t beat yourself up. From time to time everybody pulls one of those!