Scale your effort to your experience with sprinting. If this is your first attempt, try a no- or low-impact exercise and make your hard efforts about 80 percent of maximum. If you have a decent level of comfort and experience, sprint at 90 percent of maximum effort. Be sure to warm up and cool down effectively, and keep the emphasis on quality instead of quantity.
The very first time I sprinted for a workout I was sore for a week. We need to stay healthy and moving. Remember, this is about lifelong skills and habits.
The safest way to incorporate a sprint workout is outside either on a track, or a field. After you warm-up by using dynamic stretching (no long holding stretches prior to sprinting) and perhaps a light jog around the track, or on the field, or on the beach (my dream), decide if you are going to go for distance or for time.
- If you are on a track, you can see where the 50 meter dash begins and ends.
- If you are on a football field you can relive your glory days and run from the goal line to the 40-yard line.
- If you have a nice hill at your local park perhaps you just want to run up that (this is low impact due to the incline).
- If on a beach or elsewhere, you can use a countdown timer and set it for 20 seconds. Run all out for your distance or time.
REST! You can rest one of two ways. Time or heart rate. In my example below, all the resting is timed. 90 seconds to be exact in between each rep. When I am fortunate to be outside, I use my heart rate monitor (I use a chest strap connects to an app) and I wait until my heart rate drops below 120 (for the first couple of sprints I usually wait until it drops below 110).
Also during the rest, REST! Many articles indicate to just not move at all (easy if you are on the beach and just moving forward or sprinting for time back and forth), while many people like to perhaps walk back to their starting spot very slowly.
Treadmill or exercise bike. Here is a pretty easy sprint workout you can do on a treadmill or exercise bike, Remember, you are not in any rush, these are lifelong exercises we are incorporating.
Get on the treadmill and set it to 1 mph (this is very slow). At 0:55 begin increasing to a comfortable running pace for you. Run at that pace for 30 seconds (to 1:30) and drop the speed back down to 1 MPH. Remember, SAFETY is of the utmost importance. Walk at this slow pace until you get to 2:55 (this gives you 90 seconds of recovery). Start increasing the pace to where you ran the last time or increase it slightly. Run at this pace for 30 seconds which will bring you to 3:30. Rest for 90 seconds until 4:55. Repeat 4-8 times.
Below is an example of a Sprint 8 Routine. You can and should begin with sprint/run 4 or 6. I actually did the Sprint 8 for a long time a couple times per week for more than a year. Once I did less sprints but ran harder I got better results.
SAFETY FIRST. Wear the red emergency stop clip that is on every treadmill. Always listen to your body and stop if you are having a hard time. This movement takes time to develop correct form. Nothing positive will happen if you get hurt!
Sprint 8
- Set the bike or treadmill or elliptical to its lowest speed (usually 1 mph).
- At 1:00 increase the speed to a moderate to fast run and run for :30 seconds.
- At 1:30, Immediately reduce the speed to its slowest again.
- Rest for 90 seconds or until 3:00.
- At 3:00, increase the speed to a moderate to fast run and run for :30 seconds.
- At 3:30, Immediately reduce the speed to its slowest again.
- Keep repeating this 2:00 drill until the desired number of sprints have been completed, but no more than 8.
- I like this because I know that I am sprinting on every odd number: 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00, etc., and giving myself 90 seconds rest between each repetition.
With the above workout, if you did all 8 rounds, you will have had a much better workout then the people around you on their exercise machines but who are on theirs at a steady pace for an hour or more. You are done in 16 minutes. You gave your body a great workout, stressed it in a great way, and are finished before most people are still warming up.
After a year of Sprint 8’s, I never do that many now. I sometimes only do a Sprint 4 which gives me an incredible workout in 8 minutes. Not bad!
I always stop if I cannot run faster or get my heart rate higher than a previous rep. You must never sacrifice form, you will get injured.
Below are two screenshots of my phone after a sprint 8 and a sprint 5 session. As you can see in the Sprint 8, my last 4 sprints my heart rate was pretty much the same. In the Sprint 5 session, I pushed through each one and then stopped when I could not push harder without sacrificing form or risking getting injured. Both workouts took less then 20 minutes total. Work hard then rest even harder. Your body needs the time to rest, relax, and rebuild!
Sprint 8
