Cardio: Sprinting

se015

Hey guys, so I don't like long distance running and I would like to start implementing cardio in my lifting routine. I read that Sprinting is a good method especially for those that want to maintain muscle and lose fat. I started doing a few sprints, I don't have access to a track so I am currently using an abandoned parking lot and it's about 80 meters one way, I wanted ideally 100 meters just like a straight away. Anyway, I noticed I'm getting winded at 50-60 meters, does anyone have a good program I can follow that's for beginners like myself to slowly work my way into better endurance and stamina?

Thanks!

Noelv1976

50-60 meters is a long way for a beginner. shorten up in intervals. try 20-30 meters, five times. Can also do suicides. Sprint ten meters, stop, turn around and sprint back. do that for about 30 secs, then gradually increase your distance once it becomes easier. Can also do what we like to do is 30/60s or 60/120s. Sprint for 30 seconds, walk or jog for 60. Same for the latter, run for 60 seconds, walk or jog for 120 seconds. OF course you will have to make "circle" in the parking lot, if you have enough room.

kdiamond

I sprint in times instead of distance, start with 20 seconds, 30 seconds, etc. After a while I was able to get to 1 minute and then I vary my speed.

mrcs_jolly

The more you do it, the easier it gets. Your body/heart adapts. When I began my journey, I could barely jog...now I run 5ks sub 25 mins. Just keep grinding!!! You will be alright...don't stress too much about it.

NorthCascades

You might try a bike, too.

You have a limited capacity when it comes to cardio. Everybody does. The sprint you want to do is beyond your capacity, so you can't do it. You can either dial the intensity back (run slower) or you can shorten the duration; in the long run, you can improve your capacity.

If your goal is to race, what you're doing with sprint workouts isn't going to help much, in fact it's probably counter-productive. You're building your anaerobic system which can produce powerful bursts of energy, but not for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Better to do 80 % of your cardio sessions in zone 2 and the other 20 % in zone 4 and 5. Most people go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days.

Since your goal isn't to race but to lose fat (eg burn a lot of calories, because fat loss comes from a calorie deficit), you're better off doing an exercise you can maintain for a long time. That will build more calories, it will also improve your aerobic endurance.

Finally, you probably already understand the importance of rest and recovery. Keep in mind, that all applies to your heart too.

wfrazjr

Continue biting away at it. It will get easier the more you do it. Shorten your distance until you master it and then start increasing the distance.

AlisonH729

+1 for suicides (call them ladders, if you prefer). For example, sprint 10m, jog back, sprint 20m, job back, so on, repeat. (If the lot has parking spaces you can measure one and then use them as references.) ETA: You should increase your RPE for each 'set'. 50%, 60%, 70%...

Also, hills.

se015

NorthCascades wrote: »

You might try a bike, too.

You have a limited capacity when it comes to cardio. Everybody does. The sprint you want to do is beyond your capacity, so you can't do it. You can either dial the intensity back (run slower) or you can shorten the duration; in the long run, you can improve your capacity.

If your goal is to race, what you're doing with sprint workouts isn't going to help much, in fact it's probably counter-productive. You're building your anaerobic system which can produce powerful bursts of energy, but not for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Better to do 80 % of your cardio sessions in zone 2 and the other 20 % in zone 4 and 5. Most people go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days.

Since your goal isn't to race but to lose fat (eg burn a lot of calories, because fat loss comes from a calorie deficit), you're better off doing an exercise you can maintain for a long time. That will build more calories, it will also improve your aerobic endurance.

Finally, you probably already understand the importance of rest and recovery. Keep in mind, that all applies to your heart too.

Hey thanks for your response, very helpful, although you kind of lost me on the zone stuff, what does that mean?

se015

mrcs_jolly wrote: »

The more you do it, the easier it gets. Your body/heart adapts. When I began my journey, I could barely jog...now I run 5ks sub 25 mins. Just keep grinding!!! You will be alright...don't stress too much about it.

I figured, I'm just impatient lol

se015

Noelv1976 wrote: »

50-60 meters is a long way for a beginner. shorten up in intervals. try 20-30 meters, five times. Can also do suicides. Sprint ten meters, stop, turn around and sprint back. do that for about 30 secs, then gradually increase your distance once it becomes easier. Can also do what we like to do is 30/60s or 60/120s. Sprint for 30 seconds, walk or jog for 60. Same for the latter, run for 60 seconds, walk or jog for 120 seconds. OF course you will have to make "circle" in the parking lot, if you have enough room.

Alright thank you! That was really helpful, I'll give that a try

blues4miles

Do you do any other sort of steady state cardio? I'd make sure you are warmed up for the sprints. Jog out and back (160m) once or twice to warm up. Then yeah, just keep at it. If you just started, don't do it two days in a row (personal opinion) so you don't get injured. For me personally...I have a hard time going fast until I've done a half mile of jogging to warm up first. That's where my line is, yours might be above or below that.

RWClary

Great comments...

I've been doing HIIT for years on lift days and longer aerobic sessions on rest days.
It's been a great alternative, and I am pleased with the results.

se015

RobertWorthenClary wrote: »

Great comments...

I've been doing HIIT for years on lift days and longer aerobic sessions on rest days.
It's been a great alternative, and I am pleased with the results.

Hmm I was planning on not doing any Cardio on my lift days for now at least. I feel like that would create a catabolic state for my body as opposed to anabolic because of exercising too long? Which is why I like the idea of sprinting because from what I read it's a very anabolic cardio type of exercise as opposed to long distance running or exercises that stress your body for long period of time.

se015

blues4miles wrote: »

Do you do any other sort of steady state cardio? I'd make sure you are warmed up for the sprints. Jog out and back (160m) once or twice to warm up. Then yeah, just keep at it. If you just started, don't do it two days in a row (personal opinion) so you don't get injured. For me personally...I have a hard time going fast until I've done a half mile of jogging to warm up first. That's where my line is, yours might be above or below that.

Good point! I did warm up with a light jog for a long distance, but yea I'm gonna do less distance or just sprint for a given amount of time, idk yet. I only want to run outside, I hate running on treadmills, and of course by me it just got cold again just when I thought the weather was warming up too! So kind of a set back, but I'll get back into it.

NorthCascades

Seth1825 wrote: »

North Cascades wrote:

... If your goal is to race, what you're doing with sprint workouts isn't going to help much, in fact it's probably counter-productive. You're building your anaerobic system which can produce powerful bursts of energy, but not for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Better to do 80 % of your cardio sessions in zone 2 and the other 20 % in zone 4 and 5. Most people go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days. ...

Hey thanks for your response, very helpful, although you kind of lost me on the zone stuff, what does that mean?

I'm guessing you come mostly from a weights background. I'm mostly a cardio guy. We probably don't speak exactly the same language but I bet a lot of the concepts carry over.

You can measure your running performance in speed, and for the most part that works really well. To go faster, you have to work harder; pace is a good proxy for exertion/intensity/power. It's not perfect though because hills. And because sand vs pavement, and other stuff too. Not such a big deal running but on the bike, a strong wind is worse than a hill. All that stuff means speed isn't a perfect gauge for workout intensity. One thing a lot of people do about that is wear a heart rate monitor, the faster your heart is beating, the harder your body is working. Cardio is all about the heart. I mean, you're running, your legs are propelling you forward, they need oxygen for energy, the harder you work the more oxygen they need and the faster your heart beats and the harder you breathe.

So you wear an HRM, you go out and run, you look at it, it says 153 bpm, now what?

Most people who do cardio figure out the range of what their heart can do, and then divide that up into zones. Almost everyone uses a 5 zone system so that's what we're going to talk about. We'll use mine even though I have them set up differently than most people, it's still a concrete example:

Resting heart rate ~= 50 bpm

Zone 1 = 118 to 133 bpm ("warm up", easy)
Zone 2 = 134 to 147 bpm ("fat burning", easy to moderate)
Zone 3 = 148 to 160 bpm ("aerobic", moderate to somewhat hard)
Zone 4 = 161 to 175 bpm ("anaerobic", hard)
Zone 5 = 176 to 188 bpm ("redline")

Max heart rate = 188

The reason for this is different stuff is going on inside your body at different levels. So for example, in zone 2 most of the calories you burn will come from fat, in zone 4 and 5 most of them will come from carbs. Technically that doesn't matter from a weight loss perspective because it's all calories in calories out. But burning glycogen makes you really freaking hungry, burning fat doesn't. More to the point, exercising in each zone can make you stronger in different ways.

So you'd think the best way to train and to get really fast is to go out and run or ride as hard as you can as often as possible. More is better, right? But the best way to actually get faster is to spend most of your time in zone 2 (easy to moderate) which builds up your aerobic endurance, and some amount of time pushing almost as hard as you can, which raises your top end. It's way counter-intuitive. I guess, think of a bike race, with a pack of cyclists approaching the finish line, and that one guy sprinting to the win. That guy needs a good sprint, but more importantly he needs to be able to hang with the pack and still have enough energy to be able to sprint.

se015

NorthCascades wrote: »

Seth1825 wrote: »

North Cascades wrote:

... If your goal is to race, what you're doing with sprint workouts isn't going to help much, in fact it's probably counter-productive. You're building your anaerobic system which can produce powerful bursts of energy, but not for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Better to do 80 % of your cardio sessions in zone 2 and the other 20 % in zone 4 and 5. Most people go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days. ...

Hey thanks for your response, very helpful, although you kind of lost me on the zone stuff, what does that mean?

I'm guessing you come mostly from a weights background. I'm mostly a cardio guy. We probably don't speak exactly the same language but I bet a lot of the concepts carry over.

You can measure your running performance in speed, and for the most part that works really well. To go faster, you have to work harder; pace is a good proxy for exertion/intensity/power. It's not perfect though because hills. And because sand vs pavement, and other stuff too. Not such a big deal running but on the bike, a strong wind is worse than a hill. All that stuff means speed isn't a perfect gauge for workout intensity. One thing a lot of people do about that is wear a heart rate monitor, the faster your heart is beating, the harder your body is working. Cardio is all about the heart. I mean, you're running, your legs are propelling you forward, they need oxygen for energy, the harder you work the more oxygen they need and the faster your heart beats and the harder you breathe.

So you wear an HRM, you go out and run, you look at it, it says 153 bpm, now what?

Most people who do cardio figure out the range of what their heart can do, and then divide that up into zones. Almost everyone uses a 5 zone system so that's what we're going to talk about. We'll use mine even though I have them set up differently than most people, it's still a concrete example:

Resting heart rate ~= 50 bpm

Zone 1 = 118 to 133 bpm ("warm up", easy)
Zone 2 = 134 to 147 bpm ("fat burning", easy to moderate)
Zone 3 = 148 to 160 bpm ("aerobic", moderate to somewhat hard)
Zone 4 = 161 to 175 bpm ("anaerobic", hard)
Zone 5 = 176 to 188 bpm ("redline")

Max heart rate = 188

The reason for this is different stuff is going on inside your body at different levels. So for example, in zone 2 most of the calories you burn will come from fat, in zone 4 and 5 most of them will come from carbs. Technically that doesn't matter from a weight loss perspective because it's all calories in calories out. But burning glycogen makes you really freaking hungry, burning fat doesn't. More to the point, exercising in each zone can make you stronger in different ways.

So you'd think the best way to train and to get really fast is to go out and run or ride as hard as you can as often as possible. More is better, right? But the best way to actually get faster is to spend most of your time in zone 2 (easy to moderate) which builds up your aerobic endurance, and some amount of time pushing almost as hard as you can, which raises your top end. It's way counter-intuitive. I guess, think of a bike race, with a pack of cyclists approaching the finish line, and that one guy sprinting to the win. That guy needs a good sprint, but more importantly he needs to be able to hang with the pack and still have enough energy to be able to sprint.

Wow this was awesome information thank you! Okay so my goal as you probably already read is to do cardio so that I burn fat, but I also want to do the most "anabolic" cardio work out possible and I read that sprints are somewhat more anabolic than long endurance type of exercises. I see that Zone 2 is optimal. Now for how long do I want to maintain that Zone 2 for during my work out. Ideally I want to spring, jog, sprint, etc...my heart rate would change by doing that, right? So do I aim to just keep it at that 134-147 for the lets say 30 minutes of my cardio work out? I just want to make sure I understand this correctly as it applies to what I'm doing and my goals. Thanks for your explanations! Its very helpful.

sunnybeaches105

Good thread and info. Nice to see weightlifting and running together.

RWClary

Seth1825 wrote: »

RobertWorthenClary wrote: »

Great comments...

I've been doing HIIT for years on lift days and longer aerobic sessions on rest days.
It's been a great alternative, and I am pleased with the results.

Hmm I was planning on not doing any Cardio on my lift days for now at least. I feel like that would create a catabolic state for my body as opposed to anabolic because of exercising too long? Which is why I like the idea of sprinting because from what I read it's a very anabolic cardio type of exercise as opposed to long distance running or exercises that stress your body for long period of time.

The kind I perform has anaerobic qualities.
Further, I am not into bodybuilding, so our goals might be different.
Best of luck to you!

Noelv1976

Probably first thread where no one is criticizing each other but actually complimenting. Great responses everyone. Need more people like this on the other threads. More than welcome to add me as a friend.
OP, let us know how you're doing!

se015

Noelv1976 wrote: »

Probably first thread where no one is criticizing each other but actually complimenting. Great responses everyone. Need more people like this on the other threads. More than welcome to add me as a friend.
OP, let us know how you're doing!

I know I agree! I'll keep you posted! Hopefully the weather gets nicer up here so I can continue on, I've only been able to do ONE DAY of the sprinting, but as with everything else patience and commitment are required to be successful.

heybales

Seth1825 wrote: »

RobertWorthenClary wrote: »

Great comments...

I've been doing HIIT for years on lift days and longer aerobic sessions on rest days.
It's been a great alternative, and I am pleased with the results.

Hmm I was planning on not doing any Cardio on my lift days for now at least. I feel like that would create a catabolic state for my body as opposed to anabolic because of exercising too long? Which is why I like the idea of sprinting because from what I read it's a very anabolic cardio type of exercise as opposed to long distance running or exercises that stress your body for long period of time.

So sprinting is going to at the least be using your leg muscles in a maximum fashion.

Are you sprinting the day after leg day, where your muscles are attempting to recover from hopefully a good lifting session?

That is the worst time to put them under another max load.

Would you squat every day?

Recovery is already impaired in a diet, don't kill or make the recovery worse by putting another max load on the same muscles.

Do it right after the lifting, have the day of max loads on muscles - then the next day recovery.

Besides - the idea you are reading about is usually for those that only want to do cardio, but it was found that sprint intervals (HIIT) was great at doing exactly the same thing lifting already does - maintain muscle mass by nature of using it at max, thereby letting fat loss be the main thing from a diet.
Which is exactly why it needs a recovery of it's own, just like lifting.

But you are already lifting - skip the HIIT. Just get max benefit from the lifting.
Or do it right afterwards for the cardio benefit. It'll feel just as hard since the idea is to sprint as hard as you can.
Before you know it you'll be sprinting up hills after already doing leg day.

It will take longer generally for the aerobic system to make improvements starting at the anaerobic side of things like sprinting, because the lifting is already up there.
But you should still see some good fast improvement in general, merely from form improvements.