How To Correctly Add Sprinting Workouts To Your Fitness Program

When it comes to program design, sprinting workouts are quickly becoming the optimal choice of fitness trainers everywhere.

Not only do you typically get better health benefits from these sessions, but they also kick your fat loss up a notch, really allowing you to see results quickly. They are able to do this by increasing your metabolism higher immediately after the session is finished so you will burn more calories all day long.

Before you go adding these sessions into your workout program however, it’s critical that you take some time to have a good look at your overall design and factor in a few important elements. When sprinting workouts are not done properly, you’ll find they do more harm than good.

Here are the main things that you need to know.

Always Maintain One Day Of Rest

First and most importantly, you should never try and do seven intense workout sessions a week. In order to stay healthy and be recovering enough so that you show good improvement from your exercise program, it’s vital that you have one full day for complete rest.

If you like, you could do some leisurely walking on this day, but don’t do anything too strenuous.

In some cases, you may even want to take two complete days off a week, however one full day and a few lighter days would be enough for most people. This can get a little tricky if you are also weight lifting three or four times a week as well, and then aiming to add another two sprinting workouts to the program, but if you double up on a couple of days, it becomes much more reasonable.

Fuel Your Body Properly Before And After

Second, make sure you’re thinking about proper pre and post workout nutrition. In order to perform your sprinting workouts properly, you must provide a quick acting energy source for the body to use.

Unlike more moderate paced cardio workouts, the body cannot use fat as a fuel source, so glucose is the only option. Good choices to eat beforehand would include a yogurt with some whole grain crackers, a small bowl of cereal with some milk, or eggs and a slice of toast with jelly. Just be sure to avoid foods higher in fats at this time as they will slow you down when you’re trying to exercise.

Immediately after, you should follow the same protocol, aiming to take in both protein and carbohydrate rich foods.

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