How to Start Training Sprinting: a 3-Step Plan
As you advance in age, sprinting is probably the last thing you think about.
This is a shame, because it’s probably the form of exercise most capable of helping you maintain your youthfulness as you age.
However, it’s also not a form of exercise I would recommend you jump right into without a clear plan.
So, my aim with this article is to lay out a simple plan to get you started training sprinting.
To be clear, this article is not meant to provide you with a sprinting training program.
It is meant to take the person who is not accustomed to this intense of an exercise and make them prepared to do so.
If that characterizes you, then continue reading.
What is sprinting?
As always, we must get our definitions straight before continuing.
Classically, sprinting refers to maximal effort running of running distances of 400 meters or less (~0.25 miles or less).
What I use for clients and what I’m going to recommend to you is a little bit different.
For the purposes of this article, we are going to define sprinting as bouts of max effort running lasting ~10 seconds or less.
The reason for this: 10 seconds of max effort on any exercise usually leads to the depletion & end-range of the phosphocreatine system.
As a result of this, if the 10 seconds were of true max effort, energy & power production tends drop significantly past the 10 second mark.
Why should you train sprinting?
There are 5 main reasons I recommend sprinting to almost everyone, even seemingly non-athletic populations.
Benefit #1:
The main purpose of sprinting is to improve power production.
Strength refers to how much force you can produce, power refers to how quickly you can produce that force. Notably, power is the first aspect of muscle function we lose with age, starting at around age ~30. [1]
In order to effectively train power production, you must be moving at the maximum velocity possible against a given load.
Since there is a notable drop in power potential past 10 seconds of max effort, it is worth stopping your sets there, resting, and then performing another 10 second set once ready.
Sprinting is uniquely beneficial because it is effective at improving power production of every muscle in the body.
Exercises such as jumps & kettlebell swings are also good for this goal of power, but they’re a bit more isolated.
Benefit #2:
As far as connective tissue & bone health go, sprinting is hard to beat.
Activities that involve impact and high-velocities tend to be most effective for developing these parts of your body. [2,3]
With sprinting delivering this sort of stimulus to the whole body, it provides a pretty good bang for your buck.
Benefit #3:
If you’re into running or looking to get started running, sprinting makes a great tool to improve movement economy. [4]
In other words, you expend less energy with every step you take. So, if you were to expend 500 calories on a run, a person with better running economy would go farther.
Benefit #4:
Sprinting can also help to ensure better progress in your strength training.
By making your body as capable of producing power as possible, plateaus in strength tend to arise less frequently.
Benefit #5:
Lastly, sprinting can simply make your training more fun.
It’s a very unique exercise, and there’s not much else like it.
It can serve to add a nice bit of variety to your training while also providing an additive effect to the progress you make elsewhere.
How to start training sprinting:
As I mentioned previously, it is unwise to immediately attempt a ~10 second all out sprint.
Without proper preparation, injury risk is unnecessarily high.
This would be the definition of doing too much too soon.
The appropriate first steps will vary for every person, and there’s no real way to perfectly standardize this advice in one article.
In an attempt to get close to good standardization, though, this preparation process will assume you are untrained in all aspects of fitness.
If you are a beginner to all things fitness, start with step 1. If you are not a beginner, then starting with step 2 or 3 may be more appropriate depending on your situation.
As always, if you want this done for you and you want it done as effectively and efficiently as possible, then consider applying for 1:1 coaching.
Step 1: Build the base
The “base” for this purpose refers to two features:
Aerobic running base
Strength base
If you’re new to running of any sort, please refer to this article. In it, I lay out exactly how to begin running if you’re brand new.
As far as a base of strength goes, there are no real standards I would suggest you hit. What I would suggest is having ~12 weeks of consistent strength training under your belt before moving on.
Step 2: Build tolerance
When I say “building tolerance” what I mean is beginning to train movements that have a similar movement profile to sprinting but aren’t quite as intense.
Doing this can help build the connective tissue tolerance needed as well as teach your body how to move quickly.
In line with this, I would recommend that you incorporate movements such as the following at the start of any workout in which you are training legs.
You do not need to incorporate all 4 of these movements at the start of every workout, and they do not even need to be these specific exercises.
My hope is that these give you an idea of what a first level progression toward sprinting looks like.
In regard to exercises of this sort, I would recommend you incorporate them for ~2 weeks or so.
Afterward, I would recommend you add the below two exercises.
Likewise, you should keep these in your routine for another ~2 weeks.
Step 3: Building running intensity
Pick one day of the week in which you plan to train your sprints.
This could be part of a strength workout in which you are training legs, or it can be its own day.
On this day, plan to do 3 sets of runs with ~3:00 of rest between sets.
In week one, run for 0:30. Make this high-intensity, but not quite all-out. Given the longer duration compared to a 10-second sprint, you will be forced to run at a slightly lower speed.
In week two, run for 0:20. This will be slightly higher intensity than the 0:30 runs, but not quite all-out yet.
In week three, you will begin performing sprints at 0:10 at a time, aiming to run as fast and as far in these 0:10 as you can.
At this point, as you may have noticed, sprinting is officially part of your routine.
