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Sprints

June 12, 2009

In response to my post a couple of days ago, Wellness Performance Coach extraordinaire, Bob Kaufer, asked the following: “What do you think about sprinting for conditioning and weight loss?” Well, in short, I think that sprinting is one of the best forms of exercise a person can engage in. Let’s briefly discuss why.

Sprinting is running “all out”, or at top speed.

It is an anaerobic form of exercise. During a sprint, many muscles are being worked at full capacity, and as a result sprinting is very good for causing a muscle-building training response. Check out the legs and butts on sprinters. In fact, check out the whole body of a sprinter! What you will see is a well-muscled, lean physique. I believe that many sprinters combine weight training with their running, but I’ve seen some younger sprinters that do not lift weights, and they’re still impressively built — both men and women.

Sprinting is great to use in interval training. Brief, but intense sprint interval training has been shown in tests to improve both anaerobic AND aerobic energy capacity. Sprinting followed by rest intervals is classic High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and it is very effective in conditioning and weight loss programs.

Sprinting is great for burning fat because it can cause your metabolism to remain elevated long after your workout is complete. This period of elevated metabolism occurs during what is called “excess postexercise oxygen consumption”, or EPOC. This phenomenon is discussed in more detail here.

Darryl

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