Why You Should Sprint

Do you want to get lean, fast? Do you want to get stronger while losing fat? Do you want to jump higher? Do you want to be faster? Do you want to just improve your cardio? Do you want to have all this with minimal work? You can! All you need to do to get started is to pay my ridiculously cheap price of $99.99 a month! Too expensive? No worries, I'll just tell you anyway.

Sprint. That's what you have to do. Sprint hard.

Ok, that's all folks! 

...but for real, sprinting is amazing. Sadly, some people can't sprint due to injury, being too overweight, disease, or because they have no legs. Want to know some of the reasons sprinting rock? I'll tell ya.

First and foremost: sprints are fun. This actually is an opinion, obviously. If you have a training parter (or team) sprinting is great fun. Racing people is fun... specially when you win! I suggest finding someone or some people close to your speed to train with. Sprinting by yourself is not nearly as fun, but you might have to at times. 

Sprints rock for athleticism: Sprints get your cardio pumping in no time, burn fat, make you faster and stronger and they even can increase your jump! Trying sprinting (not running moderately fast, but sprint) 200 meters. Now tell me your cardio isn't working hard. It may take you a few minutes to tell me: First point made.

Sprints burn fat. It's true! They burn calories like they ain't no tomorrow. That's not all folks! Sprints burn fat after you're done your workout for quite a bit. I don't remember all the science stuff off the top of my head, but there is some chemical stuff happening in your body that's good for burning fat. Sprints will also make you burn fat more later down the road as you build muscle from them! Quick story: I used to train long distance runs and endurance activities such as push ups. I got pretty lean, but I had to train hard and diet a little. Now that I sprint and weight train more I get lean super easy... while eating a ton of food (3500-4000 calories a day)! Cool story.

Sprints get you faster! No duh, Sherlock. How to do you get better at soccer? Play soccer. How do you get better at chess? Play chess. How do you get better at X? Do X. Sprinting is a great way to become better at sprinting! A little obvious, I know.

How could sprints increase your jump? Well, they aren't ideal for more experienced athletes, because you aren't training jumping. For the not as trained athlete they are a great way to become a better jumper! Sprinting trains fast twitch fiber muscles, which are used while jumping. Sprints also burn fat thus making the load lighter, so you jump higher. Good stuff.

I never really touched on how sprints make you stronger. That is because there is more to this part of the topic! Lifting is obviously better for improving strength, but sprints have their place! Sprints work pretty much every muscle group in your body (mainly legs and core, but sprint a 400m and you'll see you use more than just your legs). Full body movement build power more than small movements (like a bicep curl, for example) this is because it teaches the body to move as one, which is more powerful, and power comes from strength.

Next, working the fast twitch muscle fibers makes you stronger. Sprinting works fast twitch muscle fibers which makes your stronger. Believe it or not, but after I add more sprinting to my workout plan (when ever track starts), I quickly see strength improvements and weight gain! I gained weight, but I didn't get fat (I got leaner). Why? I'm not sure why. Obviously I burned more calories (I ate more to balance it out), worked my fast twitch muscles more (big muscle fibers)...but I was already doing that with lifting. I have read about quite a few people saying that sprinting can help produce or activate growth hormones, but I have not done a lot of research regarding that. So I can't say that true... but it sure seems like it might be! I gained 10 pounds my sophomore year of track (first time lifting regularly+sprinting+eating more protein+growing more), I gained 3-5 pounds junior year of track (reduced my lifting due to shoulder pain, but did a ton of sprinting+healthier eating+a little long distance running), this year I have gain 4-6 pounds during track so far (eating better+lifting regularly+actually+sprinting with less long distance work). Of course, older guys/girls won't get as much weight gain because they aren't in their prime growing stage (aka: teens and lower 20s)... Let mention one more thing: I usually lost 2-3 pounds (not this year, I gained about 5) between track seasons due to different training styles and eating habits. I think part of it is due to not sprinting. So if you are having trouble gaining weight, trying sprinting a couple times a week. Might do you some good!

Ok, there is more to sprinting and such... but I can't write forever. I'll just give you three basic templates you can use for sprinting. One more for far loss, one more for overall athletism, and one you can fit in some more strength training.

Fat loss (can replace slow cardio, or you could make this a hybrid with your long distance program):

3 days a week worth at least one day of rest between days. Order day does not matter.

Day 1: hill sprints: 70-150 meters. Steeper the better. Sprint up, walk slowly down. Repeat. Start with 3-5 sprints. Increase sprints, distance or speed to make harder. Don't go over 150 meters and don't do more than 12 sprints. At that point you need a steeper hill or just run faster.

Day 2: interval day: sprint 20-40 meters for 6-12 sets, max speed (rest 30-60seconds between sets). Rest 3-5 minutes. Then do 2-3 long "sprints" of 300-500 meters, (rest 2-4 minutes between sets). You will not be able to run full out here.

Day 3: easy day: sprint 50-70 meters  6-12 times. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets. Progress by running faster.

Overall athletism:

3-4 days a week.

Day 1: hill sprints: 70-200 meters. Do 4-12 sprints. Rest: 2-4 minutes (should be longer than just walking down the hill). Increase difficultly: same as fat loss, but don't let your speed suffer too much from doing too many or too long sprints.

Day 2: skill day (work on technique): do 4 20-30 meter sprints. Work on exploding as fast as possible and pumping arms hard. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets. Next, do 3-5 50-75 meter long stride sprints. Focus on lengthening stride and using high knees. Rest 1-3 minutes between sets.

Day 3: alternating: sprint 100 meters, rest 3-5 minutes, sprint 200 meters, rest 3-5 minutes. Repeat. Do a totals of 4-6 repeats.

Day 4 (optional): long sprint: 200 meters, 300 meters, 400 meters, 500 meters, 400 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters. Do one or two of these. Rest 2-4 minutes between each sprint, 5-8 between sets, if you dare repeat.

Combining with leg strengthening day:

Same as overalls athletism, but only do days 1 and 2, days 1 and 3 or days 1 and 4. Make sure you space out your sprint and leg training days! 

Optional: add as a finisher for your leg day: sprint 100 meters, do 10-20 lunges each leg, sprint back 100 meters, do 25-75 squats (or 10-30 jump squats). No rest. Repeat?

To sum it up: have fun, sprinting rocks, train hard, eat well, and sleep a lot!