If you read Real Muscle Online then there is no doubt you are into extreme fitness. We have many professional athletes and experts who come here to get ideas about improving their fitness and one of the best ways to do that is with some extreme running drills. Here I will present four running drills that will take you to a new level.
Running Drills for Extreme Fitness
Extreme fitness is defined (by me!) as fitness that is beyond the expert level. It is like a professional athlete or a warrior in the old days - they go above and beyond what even advanced traners expect of themselves.
This type of training is brutal. It is the type of training that makes you sweat and brings you to tears. It is the type of training that leaves you sore for the rest of the week. This is the type of running drill I am talking about and it is only with these drills that you will develop extreme fitness.
1. Distance sprints
Distance sprints are based on the idea of running for your life. They are done as if you were under pressure and had to run as fast as you can for as long as you can. It is intense and gut wrentching.
A good way to do this is go to your local oval and do a long warm up. Once you are ready sprint off around the track as if you were running from a crazed murderer. Imagine that if you stop he will catch you and cut off your ears! You should try to maintain the sprint as long as you can without slowing down at all. This is one way to develop extreme fitness.
2. Hill sprinting
If you can run up a steep hill at your fastest pace without slowing down then you have extreme levels of fitness. This is the hardest form of cardio in the world, bar nothing. I honestly believe that this is the fastest way to develop fitness that will blow away all of your friends.
Find a steep hill and do a big warm up. Proceed to sprint up the hill as fast as you can without stopping. Once you get to the top walk back down and as soon as you hit the bottom run up it again. Imagine you are chasing to save a loved one or reach your life’s goal at the top. If you use mental aids like this you will proceed much faster.
You can also add a backpack full of weight to make this exercise even more intense.
3. The beep test
If you have done high school physical education you will have done this annoying test. In high school I hated it. Now I still hate it. However, I know it can bring some amazing benefits so I put up with it.
The beep test is an audio tape that you play while you run between two markers. You have to time yourself so that you touch a marker when the beep sounds. As time goes on the beeps get faster and faster and faster and it becomes so much harder to keep up. It is a perfect system for making sure your fitness improves each time you do it.
You do not have to own a beep tape to do this test. You just need to set up two points about 10 metres away and sprint inbetween them making sure you go faster each time instead of slowing down.
4. 20 second dashes
This is something my friend and I used to do in college. We would go to the park and after a long warm up spend about 10 minutes doing 20 second dashes. It goes like this.
You are going to use 15 seconds of the 20 seconds to sprint and then 5 seconds to rest. You do not get any more or any less and you have to keep this up for as long as you can.
If you do this once a week your fitness levels will go through the roof. It sounds simple on paper but it really is one of the most difficult drills I have ever done.
Conclusion
Try one of these drills once a week for a month and see what happens to your fitness levels. After a while start increasing how often you do them and how long you do them for. These are some of the best methods for developing extreme fitness.
November 19th, 2007 at 7:37 am
sweet post RT. thanks. i am really digging the posting lately. hey, what do you think about herbal supplements like ginseng for energy?
November 19th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Thanks buytshirts.
I wrote about supplements in the previous post on bodybuilding diets. It really depends on the type of supplement you are talking about.
Protein supplments work because they give you more protein.
Energy supplements work because they give you more energy.
The real disputed point is whether or not multivitamins and mineral supplements increase your level of health and wellbeing. That I am not sure about.
RT
November 20th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Cool. Thanks RT. I guess what I am wondering about is whether things like ginseng “artificially” raise your energy levels, similar to high GI foods, and therefore cause a trough in your energy supplies. Do you think things like ginseng are bad for your body?
November 20th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Hey Tshirts.
That is a tough question. Ginseng, for example, is a root that has many traditional benefits. Go to a Chinese doctor and he will tell you 10 different ways it can benefits you. However, a western doctor might have a very different opinion about it because, like most herbs, western medicine hasn’t been studying them that long and they haven’t been studying them in the same way the Eastern countries have.
I guess if you are going to use it I would go to an expert. Whether it is a herbalist, Chinese doctor or natropath just make sure they know what they are doing.
RT
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
try road work here are two diferent routines that are good for anyone to use.
1. jog 1minute spint 1 minute walk one minute repeat
use this until you get used to sprinting for one minute i sugest everyday for 2 weeks should do it and try to do five sets.
2. jog 1 minute print one minute repeat start with 3 sets and then add a set every week until you can do ten . from there you will be in pretty good shape but if you want to try for more sets that will be your dicision or if you dont want to try for more sets than begin to do this routine with 2lb ankle weights and 2lb dumbells and a back back with weight plates rapped in towels add 5lbs a week but dont add to your ankles
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Zach - do you do a lot of running. You seem to know a lot about it.
RT