Still Not as Lean as you Want to be?

Sprinting Might be your missing ingredient.

Looking at every world class sprinter might not be a fair comparison, but we can definitely see the obvious trend that all of them are extremely lean and muscular human beings. They have a powerful look about them.

If you’re looking to drop body fat without losing any muscle, it’s important to incorporate some kind of sprinting into your program. Sprinting is basically the same muscle activation as doing a 1 rep max, so you’re violently and powerfully contracting the full spectrum of your muscle fibers (fast and slow twitch).

Doing this over and over again like during a 50-80m sprint can produce muscular gains, while breaking down fat for fuel. This is a process that you can’t afford to miss out on if your goals are: ‘get lean’, ‘lose weight’, ‘not blowing my new years resolution’ or ‘eat less food when I’m drunk’.

The best way to start off if you have never sprinted before is with a half mile jog and some dynamic stretching. Doing a few sets of lunges, high knees, butt kickers, and high skips will help you to be ready to put out a maximal effort that is required.

Running up a hill is a better option for two reasons. It’s less taxing on your knees, and you can’t run as fast, both of which are good if you haven’t run full speed since you played rec league softball in college. The only thing worse than blowing out your Achilles tendon trying to get in better shape is blowing out your Achilles, then having to drag your gimp leg back to your house, but it’s too late. Your family is gone.

Start off by doing one sprint at 50% and then walk back. Then 75%, then 90%. Stay around 90% the first couple times until you’re feeling confident.

Don’t worry about the details too much here. If it’s only 30 yards, its still fine. The most important thing is putting in the effort and working hard.

Do 15 sprints including warmups. Rest as much as you need to in between sprints and no longer. Start off by doing this 1x per week.

Often, people start getting such good results right off the bat from incorporating sprinting that they want to do it every day.

Just like doing a 1 Rep Max of bench press, it’s best to not do this every single time you workout. Start with just 1 day, and then add a 2^nd day in later if you’re feeling good. Make sure to also include some sort of foam rolling for your calves, quads and IT Bands.

If you want, you can do this after a workout. Since you’re already warmed up, it shouldn’t take you as many warmup sprints. Do 10 sprints, or 18 minutes, whichever comes first.