Do sprints make your legs stronger?

coldhonkey
coldhonkey Posts: 13
in Fitness and Exercise
Did some sprints last weekend and now on the cardio machines I am increasing the resistance by a lot more than I used to. Did sprints make my legs stronger? I even went for a long jog yesterday and I don't have as much soreness as I'm used to the next day. All this time I've been doing slow cardio because I didn't think my conditioning was good but after I did sprint intervals it made the slow cardio even more effective (no nagging pains the next day). Are sprints the magic drug?

Replies

  • WilmaDennis91
    WilmaDennis91 Posts: 433 Member
    They help your build your endurance. Weights help tone and strengthen your legs
  • msarro
    msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
    Sprints do build short burst muscle fibers, but they also increase your lactic threshold (meaning the level of exercise before lactic acid, a byproduct of hard workouts, starts to build up in your bloodstream). So they kind of give you the best of both worlds. That's actually the basis of tabata protocol.

    Here's a good explanation:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactate_threshold
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Sprints are an excellent workout and IMHO, should be incorporated into just about everyone's fitness regimen. That said, they don't necessarily make your legs "stronger" per sei. Sprints increase you lactic threshold and also tear more muscle fibers which require your body to respond with repair activity that takes more energy than a steady state cardio event (i.e. you burn more calories during and 24-48 hours afterwards than you do with just a 30 minute jog or whatever. That said, steady state cardio is also important for overall cardiovascular endurance so that shouldn't be neglected either.

    To make your legs actually "stronger" would require resistance training...which I also recommend as part of any well balanced fitness regimen.
  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
    Sprints are good, but I don't think they are a magic drug. Also, I doubt you got that much benefit from just one sprint session. You are probably just getting fitter overall (which is a good thing).
  • Barbellgirl
    Barbellgirl Posts: 544 Member
    They aren't a magic drug, but the high you feel after doing a sprint workout can be a little addictive. :)
    I love sprint workout day, which for me is Tuesday.

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