Personal Training Using Sprinting?

Sprint work can be a great way to add variety (for both mind and body), to your regular walks. Do the same walking routine as always, but add short sprints of about 50m (about every other letter box or some other marker), then slowly walk about 50m. This will get your heart rate up way higher than normal, which will get you even fitter and burn more fat. Plus you will continue to stimulate your body differently, which is an important part of interval training.

Interval Training:

It has been proven that your muscles and body will adjust to the same routines after a period of time and they will become less effective. Many athletes will tell you that they use interval training for consistent calorie burning, muscle toning and cardio routines. By mixing up and alternating speeds, types or repetitions of your routine, it will make your exercise routine a cardio, as well as muscle toning routine. Walking and adding sprints is the same as athletes that weight lift and then use the treadmill. It involves added muscle activity and increased cardio activity.

Sprinting Benefits:

Sprinting is a great tool for fat loss and sculpting hamstrings. It also helps burn a huge amount of calories while you are sprinting. Where normal walking or jogging burns calories for only a short time after the workout, adding sprinting can cause the metabolic rate to increase for days afterward. For this reason, it is recommended that you add sprint work to your routine at least two days a week.

Sprint Routine:

For the most effective sprint work, the 50m starting point is good for beginners and 5 sprints per session are recommended. As you progress in your routine, you can work up to 100m and 10 sprints per session for optimal training benefits. Walking at a brisk pace keeps the metabolism high, even though your activity level is lower. Once you have raised your heart rate and metabolism rate, the key is just giving it interval spurts to maintain the level.

Sprinting Form:

Arms should swing from the shoulder, relaxed and at approximately a 90 degree angle, coordinated with the action of the legs. Lean slightly forward and stay on the balls of your feet, not on your toes. The stride should not be overstretched, just let the center of gravity dictate the foot landing beneath you. If you over-stride, it will actually slow you down. On the other hand, you do not want to under-stride either, sprinting is a combination of stride length and frequency for optimal effectiveness. Professional sprinters will tell you it is better to run relaxed, rather than power sprint, for speed and distance.

Too Much Cardio Makes You Fat:

The reason sprint-work is good for your workout is that jogging, swimming and brisk walking alone is considered strictly cardio. Excessive cardio workouts release stress hormones that make you insulin resistant and leads to overeating the wrong foods. Where joggers and cyclists may appear lean, their body fat percentages are quite high compared to sprinters, who are lean and muscular with low body fat.

Sprint-Work offers Cardio Benefits:

Sprinting burns fat, increases human growth hormones and promotes weight loss and more stamina. Your cardio system is strengthened because of the short bursts, followed by longer, easy recovery times, which causes less stress on your heart than cardio workouts.

Adding Sprints to your normal walking or jogging routine will make you burn calories and fat quicker and helps you build muscle, too.

Scott Hunt has been a Personal Trainer for over a decade and has personally taken over 20,000 Personal Training sessions. While his Gold Coast Studio, Fitness Enhancement has done hundreds of thousands of sessions.