Sprints and Weight Loss

When it comes to the concept of sprinting I have a pretty good idea of it and what not along with its benefits and so forth.

My question concerns the way it affects my body at this point. I’ve always loved sprinting, did track in high school did it in college (Middle Distance Guy sadly). After deciding that I wanted to pack on some more mass I did but now I want to cut a little weight along with really incorporating sprinting back into my routine.

I lift five times a week, and I wanted to sprint 4-5 times a week. Really doing more short high intensity work 30m-200m range.

Concerning cutting some weight, Would it be a good idea to take some whey before a sprint workout in order to help preserve any lean muscle mass that could be loss?

And also, if I start doing sprints regularly paired with lifting I would assume that I would need to up my protein/carb intake to help supplement my expenditure in energy because that’s just science.

If you up your protein and carb intake to match your energy expenditure, then you are no longer cutting weight. Take some whey before a sprint workout if you want to throw it back up on the track. If you really want to prevent muscle wasting then have a carb beverage, but say goodbye to fat burning.

You need to compromise somewhere. Don’t over-think things, your body is pretty good at holding on to muscle save for EXTREME conditions.

Alright simple stated. In season I actually use to never want to eat anything a couple hours before a track workout. But hey sounds good to me. I’ll give her a whirl see what happens over the next few weeks. Thanks.

If you’re concerned about it, you could consider some BCAAs (not immediately prior though if drinking them). Otherwise, I wouldn’t worry about it.

You won’t lose muscle mass from a sprinting workout, even if it’s after your lift. Save your sprinting for after your lifting though if you are going to do it on the same day. Otherwise your lifting would be affected.

I wouldn’t be able to sprint 5 times a week and lift 4-5 as well.

A couple sprint workouts per week, about two is the sweet spot for me.

Uphill sprints are my favorite.

I just finished my offseason macrocycle where I lifted 3-4 times per week depending on the mesocycle, and sprinted 3 times per week for the whole macrocycle. I put on 17 lbs in 13 weeks, but I was trying to gain weight. I hit pretty big PR’s in all of my lifts as well. You really don’t have to worry about losing muscle.

However, I always sprinted before I lifted. Ideally you do 2-a-days, sprint in the morning and lift in the afternoon, but this isn’t always possible. If you have to do them back to back I would still sprint first. You lift won’t be compromised that much, but your sprint will be compromised by your lift much more, and your probably more likely to get hurt.

Also, if you look up the relationship between AMP Kinase and mTOR, it suggest that you always run or condition first.

I sprint 3 times a week in the morning, in a fasted state. Then I go home and have my protein shake. I’ve leaned out and held on to my gains. Like others have said, your body will hold on to muscle unless the calorie deficit is protracted and extreme.

read Total Soccer Fitness | PDF | Strength Training | Heart Rate this book talks a lot about plyomertic strength and all that.
why are you doing bench press? soccer is played with the legs or are you a goalkeeper? greetings

Any of you guys have a sprinting workout you can share with me?

[quote]Bataz wrote:
Any of you guys have a sprinting workout you can share with me? [/quote]
Sure. Go find a field, or a hill preferably. Sprint across it. When you can no longer keep your speed, stop, turn around and walk slowly back. After you get back, rest 30-60 seconds, rinse and repeat. Do 5-10 sprints, and do this 2-3 times per week.

[quote]Bataz wrote:
Any of you guys have a sprinting workout you can share with me? [/quote]

A good general speed workout is 3 sets of 4 reps of 60m, 3 times a week.
120 secs between reps.
5-7 mins between sets.

If you want more of a speed endurance/fat loss workout try 20 100m sprints at 85-90% effort with walk back recovery between reps.

[quote]launchpad wrote:
When it comes to the concept of sprinting I have a pretty good idea of it and what not along with its benefits and so forth.

My question concerns the way it affects my body at this point. I’ve always loved sprinting, did track in high school did it in college (Middle Distance Guy sadly). After deciding that I wanted to pack on some more mass I did but now I want to cut a little weight along with really incorporating sprinting back into my routine.

I lift five times a week, and I wanted to sprint 4-5 times a week. Really doing more short high intensity work 30m-200m range.

Concerning cutting some weight, Would it be a good idea to take some whey before a sprint workout in order to help preserve any lean muscle mass that could be loss?

And also, if I start doing sprints regularly paired with lifting I would assume that I would need to up my protein/carb intake to help supplement my expenditure in energy because that’s just science. [/quote]

Sprinting is good. What is it? Everyone complains bodyweight exercises are not great for mass/strength building since you can’t up the weight. The analog for increasing weight is to start doing them explosively. Sprints are excellent all the way around and I treat them like any other lift with a set/rep scheme. Make sure your body mechanics support sprinting (you were a runner, so you should be ok). Lots of people want to sprint and get hurt trying.

  • First off, resting between sprints is a requirement. Resting meaning walking slowly or just sitting down. You must recover.

  • Second, distance for sprint is the same as for recovery. So if you sprint 100 m, then you walk back that far.

  • Warm up. This means doing the distance a few times gradually increasing speed. Again, just like weights. Best warmup is doing whatever lighter and slower. Don’t risk injury.

  • Sets and reps work this way: A rep is a sprint. start with 3x3 and work your way up to 5x5. Normally the timing is sprint, 60 - 90 sec. recovery, sprint, recover, …

  • Treat sprinting like any other lift. Look at sprinters. They don’t look like other runners.

Last point – if you are, say,doing heavy deads that day you wouldn’t do heavy squats, would you? Same with sprints. This is good since you can get a kick-ass and short workout on off-lifting days that does deliver good results. Fortunately sprints are like no other exercise, so

Oh and various schemes for trying to up the load, don’t use weight vests – I found that going heavy enough to make a difference really screwed up sprinting mechanics so I was losing ground. Ditto other weights. Best simple metric for success is time spent sprinting over a fixed distance. If your path takes say 30 sec. to do initially, over time (weeks) you should do it faster. Then increase the distance to keep the time the same (yes, this is escalation density training). Increase rep and sets too. Chances are very good that you won’t hit 5x5 so easily.

Course, everyone will tell you I’m usually full of shit… YMMV

– jj