Sprinting: Why Everyone Should Do It
Increasing the intensity of an aerobic exercise, whether it be running or cycling, for example, to an unsustainable pace turns the exercise anaerobic and has numerous benefits, including increased strength, endurance, and injury prevention
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I am David Weck and today I want to share with you why I believe everyone should sprint. Sprinting has numerous benefits. First of all, it makes your whole body strong. It promotes the production of growth hormone which is like the fountain of youth for your body. It improves body composition, increases your muscles, decreases fat and is a form of injury prevention. So you'll create a stronger bone structure, stronger soft tissue, connective tissue, and it will help you with distance running. Even if you're not a runner, you should sprint.
Now, what I want to clarify right off the top is sprinting doesn't even have to refer to running. It just has to do with fast movement that you cannot sustain. Let’s make that the simple definition of sprinting. So even if it’s an airdyne bicycle, sprint. You want to work hard.
For runners out there, especially you distance folks, what I recommend is that you must incorporate sprint workouts. Take at least one of your workouts each week, reduce your mileage, and increase your speed. Or, put in intervals where you run faster than what you can sustain, and then recover, faster than what you can sustain and recover. That’s the idea and basically the faster you go, the shorter the distance. A fantastic workout is a 30 second sprint interval followed by a 90 second rest. If you were to stack 4 of those, giving it an honest effort at 30 seconds, meaning after 30 seconds you essentially have to stop, you will super charge your metabolism and you will make a more powerful athletic body when you do that workout. Fantastic way to do it.
Of critical importance, is that you have good form and technique. Watch my other tips, go to WeckMethod Tips to learn more because you don’t want to hurt yourself. So, if you’re new to this, if you haven't been doing it since you were a kid perhaps, don't worry about the rate of acceleration in the beginning. It is perfectly okay to ramp it up, ramp it up and then get it up to speed that you can't sustain. If you are going to do a 30 second interval, think of it as 3 stages. The first 10 seconds is the ramp up phase, the next 10 seconds is sort of "oh, transition in to fast", and the last 10 seconds is all out to the level that is appropriate for you. Rest. Do it again. Do it 2-3 times a week and you will feel tremendous benefits in your body.
If you are a distance runner, you are going to increase your anaerobic threshold which will make you a faster runner over that long distance and there will be less repetitive stress. Because if you plot along at a slow distance and never sprint, your bones will actually become more porous and you will never have that speed and power. You won't have the ability to kick at the end and really win that race or get your best time. So adding sprints in to your running workouts will make you a better distance runner. And obviously make you a better sprinter.
For general fitness, it’s one of the best things that you could possibly do for your body. Sprint. Sprint hard, sprint smart. Have at it, I'll see you next time.
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