How Father of Five Got Back in "High School" Shape

How Father of Five Got Back in "High School" Shape
I learned early on that running hills is one of the best
workouts for adding strength and speed and staying lean and
mean.

When I was 18 years old, way back in 1987, the greatest
workout of my Senior track season was to run up a hill
called Shepherd's Crook. From the name you can probably
tell that it was a road that went straight, then bent to
the right and finally bent to the right again… a total of
about 300 yards, all uphill.

I ran this hill numerous times that year to prepare for our
run at qualifying for the state track meet - which we did.

I also ran a whole lot of stairs during high school.
Again, some of the best workouts of my life. I can still
remember those exact workouts and how great my whole body
felt afterwards.

I can also tell you that I have never been as strong, as
fast or as in shape as when I was running hills and stairs.

In 1993, as I began my coaching career I continued to have
my athletes run hills and stairs. It helped track and
field, football and other athletes reach the peak of their
athletic potential and keep them in great shape.

Even as I coached my athletes to train with this high
intensity, I somehow dropped it from my own training. And
I paid the price.

Over the years, I replaced muscle with flab and added a few
extra pounds of fat on top of it. My weight got higher
than it had ever been.

I know now that I had fallen victim to conventional wisdom
of the fitness world. During college, studying exercise
physiology, I first learned of the "fat-burning" zone for
cardio exercise. And I bought it, hook, line and sinker.

It took me years to realize the long bouts of low intensity
training in my cardio zone were not the best way to stay
young and thin. Plus, I hated that kind of workout. Too
much time, not enough excitement, not enough results. If
only I hadn't spent all that time on the treadmill, the
elliptical machine and the recumbent bike… pretty much
wasting my time.

I also fell for another line of bull. That, once you turn
30, your metabolism slows down, you get slower, weaker and
lose muscle mass… and there's not a thing you can do about
it. I don't know about you but I didn't want everything
from age 30 on to be downhill (pun intended). The fact of
the matter is, they don't bother to tell you that you can
dramatically slow this process down with certain types of
exercise! You can maintain and even improve on your
fitness your entire life.

Thankfully, I got fed up with how I looked and felt and
looked around for something else. It was then that I
started reading a lot about the effects of high intensity
exercise.

The more I read, the more I became convinced that raising
the intensity of my workouts was the way to go. High
intensity workouts, like sprinting, built more muscle,
burned more fat and cranked up the metabolism to the levels
we all enjoyed in our younger years.

And it all made sense. When I was in the best shape of my
life, this was the kind of exercise that I did. Sprinting,
running hills, running stairs… fast, explosive movements.
It was time to add this stuff back to my workouts.

I began running sprints again in 2004 and added hills and
stairs the following year. I quickly saw just how powerful
this type of exercise could be. I feel and look better
than I have in years and have more energy, strength, power
and endurance.

Now, I run sprints on hills or stairs three times per week
along with strength training. I use the techniques in this
manual to get fantastic results in just a few minutes of
sprinting per week. I also coach others on these
techniques and have seen the positive effects in them as
well.

What I tell the people I coach is to please remember to
start slow. Hill sprint workouts can be adapted for
everyone to use. From working out for the first time to
elite levels of fitness… starting slow and building on your
success is key to achieving all of your fitness goals. It
won't take long to start seeing your progress. Take it one
day at a time. As Ben Franklin once said, "Make haste
slowly". But, make haste just the same.

----------------------------------------------------
Tim Alan Kauppinen, or Coach K, has over 20 years
experience as an athlete and coach. He has developed
champion athletes across multiple sports through speed
training, strength improvement and conditioning. Coach K
is the author of the Uphill Fitness Training, and publishes
a FREE daily training email newsletter. Tim can be
contacted through his website at http://www.makesyoufast.com