Sprinting
When I tell most people about sprinting, the usual response I get is that they don’t care about being fast, they just want to lose weight.
They continue to trudge away on the treadmill or elliptical at a long, slow, slightly uncomfortable pace and then wonder why they aren’t getting the results they want. When we do cardio, we want to shed fat, but we don't want to lose muscle tissue in the process. Therefore, our cardio needs to preserve muscle mass, yet shred fat, so that means we need to do anaerobic exercises and explosive movements, which almost always encourage muscular growth.
Sprinting, is a simple form of speed training exercise, that offers more than just calorie burning. Certain enzymes become abundant within the body each time sprinting occurs. These enzymes, along with normal cell functions, help the body store more calories and energy within the muscle tissue rather than the fat storages within the body. Through this process, the body steadily depletes all of its fat storages that normally account for weight gain.
In 2011, "The New York Times" quoted exercise physiologist Andrea Chernus, who says that sprinting raises your cardiovascular capacity by pushing your anaerobic threshold. She notes that sprinting offers a harder workout than slow and steady cardio work.
As a result of incorporating sprinting into a workout routine, distance runners can increase their speed, and athletes in sports such as baseball and soccer can increase their quickness.
The brief bursts of high intensity running followed by periods of recovery appear to strengthen the heart. The recovery periods don't stress your heart as much as long and slow cardio workouts. Plus, sprint workouts take up a shorter period of time and are more fun than the fixed routine of a traditional cardio workout. Research at McMaster University in Canada, cited on the Exercise Physiology website, indicates that you can increase your endurance as well as your speed by incorporating sprints into your workouts. A group of recreational exercisers added sprints on a stationary bike to their normal exercise routine. Doing six sessions of 30-second, flat-out sprints, broken up by recovery periods, over a two-week period of workouts doubled the endurance times of the cyclists, a sure sign of increased heart and lung strength.
Sprinting is a natural and valuable human activity.
If you think back to when you were a kid, how many times did you jog for miles? Almost never, right? On the other hand, you probably sprinted nearly every day on the playground, the athletic field, or just down the street. If you want to maintain a youthful body, you have to continue to do the things that youthful bodies naturally do. Sprinting is one of those things.
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