If I Could Do Only One Type of Workout for the Rest of My Life, It Would Be This One

Posted by Patrick on November 9, 2011

Look at the difference between a marathon runner’s body and a sprinter’s body.  Still think jogging for hours and hours is a good idea?

sprints are good for muscle building

It’s time to take a serious look at my favorite of all exercises and the single exercise I would pick if I could only choose one for the rest of my life: sprints.

Sprints are without a doubt one of the single greatest exercises you can do for your body.

Sprints increase metabolism, burn fat and calories quickly, increase your body’s coordination, flexibility, athleticism, range of motion, practical strength, reflex and reaction time, and build muscle.  They can also be very fun to do.

Sprints require no equipment, no gym membership, and you can do them practically anywhere.  Sprints are a practical body movement with a real world application.  They force your body to become lean and muscular.  How many 100M runners in the Olympics have awesome bodies?  All of them do.

Running as fast as you can for short durations of time is very good for you.  It develops explosive power.  Sprints increase human growth hormone production and testosterone production in both men and women (which is a good thing because women’s bodies produce and benefit from testosterone as well).  Sprints build muscle.

When you focus all your energy and concentration on moving your body as fast as you possibly can from point A to B, you experience something very intense.  This is not sitting on an exercise bike in the gym for an hour and 30 minutes at moderate intensity.  This is all-out full speed highly intense go as fast and hard as you possibly can go- for about 10 seconds.  Putting this kind of load on your body and your muscles will yield something extraordinary in your body.

Sprint Workouts That Will Transform Your Body

When doing a sprint workout, there are several ways to go about it. But regardless of which sprint workout you do, you must run as fast as you possibly can each and every time.  This is not the time to jog.

Sprint workout #1 | Straight Away 60 yard sprints

Designate a straight-line distance of approximately 60 yards or 50 meters.  Run as fast as you possibly can from the start to end point.  When done with your sprint, walk briskly back to the starting point.  Once you return to the starting point, sprint again as hard and as fast as you can.  You rest while you are walking back to the start point.  Do 10 sprints.

Sprint workout #2 | Uphill sprints.

This workout is similar to the first sprint workout, only this time you’ll be sprinting about 30 to 40 yards up a significant incline.  Run as fast as you can from beginning to end, then walk back down and immediately begin another sprint.  Do 10 sprints.

Sprint workout #3 | Shuttle Run sprints

Shuttle run sprints are the mother of them all.  This is by far one of the hardest exercise routines in existence. But if you can get good at these and learn to enjoy them, they can become a mainstay in your arsenal of exercises to seriously flatten your core abdominals while building lean, sleek, sexy muscle.

Designate a distance of 30 yards with a start and end point.  You will sprint as fast as you can back and forth between the start and finish point of the 30 yard distance.  Running down and back 3 times (180 yards total) counts as 1 complete set.  Rest 2 minutes exactly, no more.  Time your rests with a stopwatch.  Now do 4 more sets just like this.

If you have energy at the end, run 2 or 3 straight leg 50 yard sprints.

More info about sprints

I first learned about the benefits of sprints from a college athletic trainer at a major United States university.  His research had taught him that sprints are one of the core exercises that all college athletes do to increase their athleticism.  He noticed that in general the most attractive physiques for both men and women were found in the athletes that ran short distances for track and field.

After doing sprint workouts the first time, I was hooked.  I immediately recognized the value of the entire workout and have kept is as one of my main workouts that I do even to this day.  After a sprint workout, you really feel like you have been through a major event, you have really pushed your body hard and tested its limits.  This is EXACTLY what causes positive change in your physique and state of mind.

Sprints are a perfect addition to a sensible diet and workout plan.  I hope you’ll see the difference they make in your workout and fitness program.

Good luck and run fast! :)

 

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[...] Usually when you think of typical or traditional cardio like running 5 miles or getting on an exercise bike for an hour, that’s the workout which focuses on slow twitch muscle and low intensity over a long period of time.  If you need to know what someone with highly developed slow twitch muscles looks like, just take a look at a marathon runner and compare that to what a sprinter looks like. [...]

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