Sprint Star Training: Is it Any Good?

Ah, sprinting. The activity that could save your life if you were ever chased by dinosaurs or The Wolf Man (as long as your faster than the person next to you). Sprinting is also one of those activities you either love or hate. Today we will explore Sprint Star Training and if it’s right for you!

Of course, when you’re going for the perfect physical body you need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and do things you don’t really like in order to improve. Regardless of what you feel about sprinting, it is one of the best ways to burn calories quickly. Naturally, you can’t sprint for as long as you can jog, but with proper training, you can maximize the effects of your sprinting.

So whether you’re training for a particular athletic activity or you’re just doing it for boosting your appearance, finding the right sprint training will present you with all sorts of benefits. Sprint star training, sprint interval training or however else you want to refer to it is a workout activity you should consider.

Is it any good and can it provide you with the potential benefits you’re looking for?

Keep on reading because we’ve got the answers for you. 

What is Sprint Star Training?

Alright, so if you try to Google this you’ll end up locating a few dozen ways to log into your Sprint wireless mobile account.

Dig past offers for switching your wireless contract and you’ll come across an assortment of great ways to workout and make improve your sprinting workout.

Basically, if you want to become a sprinting star, these training methods are designed for you. Even if you don’t have dreams of racing Mr. Bolt from Jamaica and just want to improve your cardiovascular performance, sprint interval workouts provide you with exactly that.

Sprint interval training is a form of HIIT training. HIIT, short for high-intensity interval training, means you go all out and put as much as you can into a certain activity for a short period of time, followed by a cool down period. For sprinting it is pretty straightforward. You’ll sprint, then go for a walk or jog, before sprinting again (alright, it is a bit more complex than that and we’ll get into it more, but those are the basics).

The purpose of a sprinting HIIT training method has several reasons behind it. 

First, it forces your heart rate to increase and drop back down in a short period of time. This strengthens your heart, which in turn allows it to pump more oxygen and blood through your body. With a stronger heart, you’ll improve your performance in nearly anything you do. On top of this, it helps build cardiovascular endurance, burn more calories in a shorter period of time, boosts your metabolism and, possibly best of all, you don’t need a gym or really any kind of equipment to do it.

So no matter what kind of athlete you are, what you are training for or even what shape you are in, the sprint star training is an excellent addition to your workout routine.

You just need some examples as to what to do and whether or not you should be performing this kind of a HIIT workout (there are some people who may want to look elsewhere based on their current health conditions).

Remember to Warm Up

When going through high school athletic events you were always taught to stretch, stretch and stretch some more. 

Stretching is good, but there are some cases where stretching may actually prove unnecessary or detrimental. Running is not one of those times. You don’t want to just hop out of the car and go into a dead sprint. That is a really quick way to cramp up. If you’ve ever had one of those instant pain inducing Charlie horse cramps pop up out of nowhere, you understand the sheer pain of the matter (as a bit of trivia, if you’ve ever wondered where the term “Charley Horse” came from, it is in reference to a 1880s pitcher named Charley Radbourne who had the nickname “Old Hoss” and he suffered such a muscle spasm during a game, so the condition is now named for him).

Stretching out is a must here in order to avoid these kinds of cramps and spasms. Also, make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. This is one of the main reasons why you do cramp up. You don’t need to spend a half hour stretching out your legs like that guy on the side of the track who seems to have been wearing the same short-short jogging shorts for the last half-century.

A few minutes stretching the muscles through your legs is all it takes.

After touching on your stretching, take a jog around wherever you’ll be sprinting. If you’re at the track, take a nice, leisurely jog around the track. If you’re just in your neighborhood take a comfortable jog around the block. You don’t need to set any speed records. In fact, slower is better here as you want to save the energy for your sprints.

The entire purpose of the jog here is simply to warm up your legs (especially if you’ve been sitting at a desk all day) and get the blood and oxygen flowing through your body (Coach Calorie, 2017).

Sprint Star Training Example Workout

When it comes to sprint star interval training workouts, there really is no limit to the kinds of workouts you can perform. The following workout is recommended by Joselynne Boschen, who is a Nike Master trainer (and had the recommended sprint workout printed in GQ magazine).

After your warmup session, prepare yourself for your sprint. You can start in a sprinter’s stance or just go from a standing position. If you’re looking to improve your performance for a physical race coming up it is always best to practice how you’ll begin the race, which is likely your sprinter’s stance. Outside of this, it is a personal preference.

Begin the workout with a 45-second sprint. Go as hard as you can. The point is to put it all on the line. If you feel you can go faster, go faster. You can use a digital watch to show you the time, or there are applications you can install onto your phone that will let you know timing with sounds over your headphones (after all you probably don’t want to be constantly looking down at your wrists). After 45 seconds don’t just stop, but instead, walk for 15 seconds. This brings your heart rate crashing back down to normal. After 15 seconds, repeat the same process another time (after performing the workout for a few weeks and your lungs become accustomed to the sprinting, bump this up to repeating it two more times instead of once).

Following the 2-3 times through, spend 20 minutes jogging at half speed. You don’t need to go hard with this 20 minutes. Instead, it is designed just to keep your muscles loose (if you stop, your muscles will begin to cool off, which makes going back into the workout difficult). Even if you need to go for a brisk walk when you first start this particular workout it is fine. Just keep moving.

Following your 20 minute half jog, you’ll perform the 45-second sprint and the 15-second walk another one to two times to complete the HIIT workout. You’ll finish off the entire workout in less than 30 minutes, and yet you’ll feel this longer than any other cardio workout you’ve probably done in a long time. This is because you are forcing your body to the limit every single time you sprint. In other forms of cardio exercise, you’re not going all out.

The only way to build your endurance and improve performance is to push your peak, which is exactly what the sprint star training method is so valuable.

A Second Sprint HIIT Training Option

The previous workout you can carry out in under 30 minutes. It is also a bit more extreme as you have substantially more sprinting then resting time. If you’re just getting back into running you may find you just can’t complete the entire circuit yet. Don’t worry if you can’t and don’t give up. We have a shorter option for you. This way, whether you have even less time to get your cardio in or you can’t make it the full 30 minutes, you’ll be able to work your way through this workout, which can be completed in less than 16 minutes (if you do it straight through). The great thing about a 16-minute workout is by the time you realize just how to beat and tired you are the entire thing is almost over.

This workout was published in the 2013 ACSM Health and Fitness Journal, so it has been researched as an excellent way to take advantage of sprinting during your workout routine. To start, you’ll want to perform a two-minute jog. Again, don’t go all out. This is more about warming yourself up than anything else.

The workout itself is straightforward. Sprint as hard as you can and as fast as you can for 15 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds. Repeat this 20 times. Because you are walking for twice as long as you sprint, it is a great way to begin building up your endurance. In addition, because you are sprinting for such a short amount of time it is easier to give it your full 100% without slowing down. So feel free to start with this workout before moving on to the other option.

How Often Should I Use the Sprinting Interval Routine?

It all comes down to you. You should do it anywhere from one to three days a week. Do not do it on leg day though. You could actually end up reducing potential size gains as your muscle tissue is already damaged from the lifts and now you’ll compound it with the sprinting. Instead, use this on off days. Ideally, it is best to perform the sprinting routine two days after your leg day, but if you hit your legs every other day, it is best to either fit it in between or perform it on the weekend when you have a bit more time to recover (Shape, 2015).

Who Shouldn’t Do Sprinting Workouts?

As we mentioned towards the beginning of the article, there are some people who should avoid sprinting workouts.

If you have any kind of knee injury or suffer from joint pain it is best to avoid this workout. Even though it is short, it is a high-impact workout. Instead, there are other HIIT workouts you can do that cut out the impact on your knees. In reality, you can use just about any cardio machine for this. If you like using a bicycle at the gym, perform the same workout on a bike or an elliptical machine. You can even do it in the pool.

While sprinting requires the least amount of equipment, for some people it just is not an option.

Conclusion

Sprinting is one of the very best ways to burn calories fast. It pushes your entire body into overdrive and requires your heart rate to increase dramatically.

Combined with periods of rest in between, you’ll quickly discover the importance of sprinting in your workout. Now, sprinting is something many of us hate doing. Really anything involved with running is a bit of a drag. If you suffer from knee pain it is best to avoid these kinds of sprint star training workouts, but if your knees are fine and pain-free, you owe it to yourself to try it out. You’ll quickly build up your endurance and, in just a few weeks, you won’t have the burning sensation in your lungs any longer.

Best of all, with both 30 and 15-minute workout options, it is possible to fit these workouts in just about anywhere and at any time.

-Terry Asher