Sprinting is the apex predator of speed, conditioning, and fat loss training. If you want to get leaner, here are three benefits to start sprinting.
1) Sprinting Is A Lesson In Time Management
Many lifters struggle to lose body fat.
The biggest reason is a poor diet. Another key factor is how they manage their time.
Do you want to know where most people waste the majority of their time when they are at the gym? The “cardio” section. Do you really want to spend 1-2 hours on a treadmill or an elliptical? And just for the machine to say you only burned 100 calories? Are you kidding me? These machines are the definition of inefficient.
Sadly, many lifters go through this same cycle for years. But when they look in the mirror, they still don’t see the lean body they wanted. They see a bad body and realize they’ve wasted years being unproductive.
Time is the most valuable thing we have on this planet. And once it has passed by, we can never get it back. A sprinting workout for fat loss usually lasts between 15 and 25 minutes. The old adage of quality over quantity applies here. No “cardio” machine can compete with the supreme power and effectiveness of sprinting.
The process for a sprinting workout looks like this:
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Eat your pre-workout meal (about 1.5-2 hours before you sprint).
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Show up at the track.
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Perform a sprinter warm-up for 10-15 minutes.
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Realize the workout is going to hurt.
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Perform the sprint workout for 15-25 minutes then collapse.
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Dust yourself off, go home, and have your post-workout meal.
Sprinting helps you shed fat. Sprinting also builds stronger glutes and hamstrings. When your glutes sit high and tight like a military haircut, you are on the right path. You cannot achieve this effect in the lame “cardio” section.
2) Sprinting Will Help You Transform Your Body
Sprinting stimulates fat loss more than any other exercise.
No other exercise can match the energy demands of sprinting. Adding sprinting to a legit diet and training routine will create big changes for your body. On the flip side, if a lifter does hours of mindless cardio and eats poorly, they will start to lose muscle mass. The goal is not to lose muscle mass when you are building your body.
Serious athletes who are in great shape are not slogging away on a treadmill. They aren’t watching a bad sitcom on the gym TV. They are sprinting.
3) Sprinting Develops Mental Toughness
I have done many types of lifting and conditioning workouts.
Some of the workouts were harrowing. But I would choose any of those workouts over running repeated 300-meter sprints any day of the week. There is no feeling worse in the training game than experiencing these things at the same time:
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your heart is beating out of your chest
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your glutes and hamstrings are pumped up beyond belief.
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your abdominals are cramping.
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your shoulders are getting tight.
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your mind wants to quit.
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and you still have 100 meters to go on your second of three 300-meter sprints for the day
Without mental toughness, you will fold at the first sign of adversity. And only by facing adversity can you forge mental toughness.
4) Sprinting Develops Ridiculous Athleticism (Bonus)
Sprinting offers unmatched performance for athletes. No other exercise does it better.
In the sports performance game, many coaches and athletes are mistaken. They think that athletic ability comes from working out in the weight room.
The truth is that many football programs do not create athletes who can run fast 40-yard dash times. Even worse, when the workouts, which are a mix of bad form and heavy weights, don’t work, they do more of them.
The weight room is a vital space for athletes. It helps them develop muscle, gain strength, and build team morale. But the strongest weight room lifter is rarely the fastest sprinter. If you want your athletes to be fast and athletic, they need to perform sprints and jumps on a regular basis.
Conclusion
If you are healthy and injury-free, you should be sprinting.
I’ll holla at you next time.
The People’s Trainer,
Fitman
