The 2012 Olympics are about to start in London in a few days and the world’s greatest athletes will be on display. Regardless of their sport these athletes have put in years of training and sacrifice that should be applauded. However, for our purposes of getting a ripped physique some athletes training methods should garner a closer look than others. The sprinting events always grab a lot of attention at the Olympic Games because who doesn’t want to see the fastest humans alive race? Sprinters are highly tuned athletes who have well-muscled builds while maintaining a low body fat percentage, sounds about right for us doesn’t it? In this post I want to talk about using sprinting for fat loss to help us unveil those abs.
Cardio is a necessary part of achieving six pack abs. Unfortunately, many people have developed a negative view of a very important aspect of getting ripped and maintaining proper health. Steady-state cardio on a machine and inside a gym can be absolutely boring. Who knew running to no where wasn’t exciting? Sprinting is a great choice for cardio exercise because not only do you burn through fat but you can also add muscle mass, which is also something you may lose doing too much steady-state cardio.
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Sprints are tough because of the fatigue factor involved in putting in near maximum to maximum effort for every rep. Honestly, I love sprinting not only for it’s fat loss potential but also because it is a challenge to push yourself and recover enough to do it again even when you don’t feel like you can.
Ok, so we know that sprinting is good for fat loss but how do we implement it into our own training to reap the benefits? Well, I’m not a track coach just a fitness enthusiast who has found a sprinting program that works for me and I don’t recommend that you follow it but here is what I do:
My Sprinting Workout for Fat Loss
The first and most important part about a sprint workout is to warm-up to prevent injury because pulls and tears are hard to avoid if you aren’t probably warmed. To warm-up I generally jog two laps on the indoor track at my gym which is roughly 400 m total. Following the jog which gets the blood flowing I do warm-up exercises such as butt kickers and high knees.
Now for the sprinting itself, I keep the distance under 200 meters and generally perform some variation of this workout twice a week. This distances and rest periods change based on my fitness level at the time and I usually focus on shorter distances for close to max speed during one of these workouts.
For example:
3-5 x 60 m sprints at 85-90% intensity. My rest between each sprint is 120-180 seconds.
1 x 100 m sprint at 80-85% intensity.
One day might consist entirely of shorter distance sprints of under 100 meters while the next day might be comprised of 100 to 200 meter sprints. Again there is a lot of variety in the distances, rest periods, and the intensity at which I perform sprints. After, I am finished with the sprints I usually walk for 5 minutes or so just to catch my breath before I do stretching that focuses on my hamstrings. The great thing about sprints is that you don’t have to do an insane amount of them to see results, all of my workouts consist of 5-8 sprints with walking in between to recover.
If you are looking for a great tool to add to your workouts you might want to consider sprint training for fat loss. Not only will you burn through that fat, you will add strength and developed well shaped glutes and hamstrings as well. You might not ever become an Olympic sprinter but you can sure look like one by developing a similar training style.