But when I got back to Okinawa and took over the PT program for my shop I was curious. I remembered this set of stairs that my friend Robert showed me just off base. They were about 3-4 stories straight up and running up them was TORTURE! I want to keep my pt program interesting so I brought them out there and sure enough things got interesting. After only a mile run there, 6 races up the stairs (losers had to do 7), a mile back, and 3 people puking they all decided that it was harder than it looked. But in an odd and masochistic way.....fun. So we kept doing it. After about a month I have noticed great improvements, we have already extended the run and found an even longer set of stairs. Soon I will have to start running them with a pack on! Not only did the stair sprints get surprisingly easier each time we went but my leg power and endurance have increased immensely.
In comparison to distance running stair sprints are much more ideal for what I do (MMA). Here are a few of the pros&cons of stair sprints:
Pro's:
- Much stronger and larger legs than distance running.
- Improves your speed.
- Offers a much quicker and intense workout vise a long run.
- Gives you much more explosive strength in your legs, which greatly benefits your (sprinting, jumping, striking, etc) power.
- They will improve your vertical jump.
- Mixes well into a Crossfit type workout.
- They do not destroy your knee's, hip's, and lower back like long road runs do. Trust me I did a marathon, I know.
- It makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on and work out a large group of people no matter what their running pace may be. Where as you always have stragglers falling way back on a long run.
- They can be slightly dangerous in terms of tripping.
- It might be hard to find a good set of stairs to use.
- If you already have bad knees you may not want to start these.
0 comments:
Post a Comment