Are Hills the Secret Weapon to Hyrox?
Find out how to improve your Hyrox Race Times with Hill Running.
🔥 Welcome to the 60 new subscribers that joined Hyrox Hub and stepped into the arena this week! 💪
🏃♂️ ⛰️ Hills are a great way to build strength, speed, speed endurance and replicate compromised running. Hills can be BRUTAL. If you have ever done a really tough hill session? Then you will know what I’m talking about.
When I was running track as a 400m runner, we would do hills every Sunday morning. They were the best session for building strength and strength endurance. Hills are low injury risk even when running at a high ％ effort, because your actual speed is lower.
Hyrox is a muscle endurance sport. It involves running on very fatigued legs. Hills provide strength endurance and will improve your ability to run on compromised legs.
You still need to build a solid cardiovascular base, as hills are only one piece of the Hyrox puzzle. If you were to take a proficient 10km or half marathon runner and put them in a Hyrox race without specific training, they would most likely struggle with the intense leg workload.
👟Runners are accustomed to finding and maintaining a steady rhythm, Hyrox will shatter your comfort zone. The switching between running and functional exercises disrupts any semblance of a consistent pace, challenging even well-conditioned athletes.
Hyrox demands not only endurance but also strength, power, and the ability to quickly transition between different movement patterns. This unique combination of exercises sets Hyrox apart from traditional endurance events, requiring a more diverse and specialised training approach.
5 Reasons Why I ❤️ Hills
They shorten your stride forcing you to increase leg speed to maintain speed.
The reduce the risk of injury
The build strength and power
The build mental toughness
The increase VO2 max 🚀
Facts
Research shows that hills can improve VO2 Max. One study found that just 6 weeks of high-intensity uphill running intervals improved running economy and 5K performance by 2% on average.
Hill repeats stress the cardiovascular system more than flat running, making them excellent for building oxygen uptake and VO2 max. The improvements in VO2 max from hill training occur alongside improvements in other factors like resting heart rate and speed endurance.
Below is an example of 6 Week Hill Training Plan Using a 3-5% incline
This is for intermediate to advanced athletes. If you are a beginner, reduce the run time, and walk back on all the recoveries.
Week 1 - 1 x 5 x 1-2min Run - Walk back recovery
Week 2 - 1 x 5 x 1-2min Run - Walk/Jog recovery
Week 3 - 1 x 6 x 1-2min Run - Jog recovery
Week 4 - 1 x 7 x 1-2min Run - Jog recovery
Week 5 - 3 x 3 x 1-2min Run - Jog recovery with 4 mins between sets
Week 6 - 1 x 5 x 1-2 min Run - Walk Back Recovery (de-load)
🏃♂️Happy HILL Training 🏃♀️➡️
Thanks for this post, Rod! I'm looking for more resources like this that are less specific but stil have good carryover to Hyrox races, so I appreciate the write up!