Sprinting workouts are a great addition to your exercise regimen. Though they’re intense, they don’t take much time and they give you tons of benefits!
Run Before You Sprint
Sprinting is great, but not if you’re just starting out. If you haven’t exercised in a while, try jogging first just to get your body used to moving again.
Injuries aren’t fun. Try doing some jogging 2-3 times a week before you take up sprinting.
Sprinting To Lose Weight?
Yes, sprinting can help you lose weight. In fact, it’s great for weight loss! Sprinting is a hard exercise and it burns lots of calories. It also tells your body that you need to use your leg muscles to the limits of their ability, so it should make them stronger. Your body then builds your leg muscles stronger (when you’re sore), which takes even more energy.
Also, the extreme strain of running will increase your metabolism even after you’ve finished sprinting. These three aspects, when taken together, make sprinting a great exercise for losing weight and burning fat.
Sprinting Is All About Effort
When we’re talking about sprinting, this doesn’t mean that you will be going really fast, especially in the beginning. The primary component of sprinting is effort. You should be pushing yourself as hard as you can (100% effort) for the 30 to 60 seconds that you’re sprinting. Just doing 3 or 4 little intervals of sprinting will be more than enough.
Don’t Do It Too Much
Sprinting takes a lot out of you. It’s tiring! So, you don’t have to do it very often. Simply adding sprinting to your routine once a week will be beneficial. You’ll see yourself going faster (for a bit longer) in just a few weeks.
Sprinting can be hard on your body, especially if you haven’t run fast in years. Start out with only a few sprint intervals, and work your way up from there.
Sprinting Shouldn’t Take Much Time
Doing 1-3 sets of sprints with rest breaks in between should only take you 10 minutes, tops. You really don’t need a whole lot of time when you’re sprinting.
Since it’s so intense, the actual time you’re sprinting will be pretty short. Stop running when you feel yourself slowing down and you know you’ve used up your energy.
Combined with changing clothes, you could get you entire sprinting workout finished in just 20-25 minutes. This is very convenient for such an excellent workout.
Sprint Up A Hill!
This is fun for the advanced athletes out there. Hill sprinting is great and it’s even more draining than normal sprinting, and fun to do.
Simply find a hill near your house. Sprint up it until you’re totally spent (even though you might not have reached the top). Then, walk back down to the base and try it again.
A few sets of these will wear you out. But, make sure you don’t start out doing them. Hill sprints are more intense and thus, easier to injure yourself so make sure you start with jogging. Going slower and working up to the advanced stuff is always better than suffering an injury.
Try adding some sprinting workouts to your fitness routine today and reap the benefits from the amazing fat and calorie burning effects sprinting has to offer!
