By Vince DelMonte
Author
of No Nonsense Muscle Building and Six Pack Abs Quest
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If you are looking to improve
your physical conditioning, sprint training is one of the
best ways to go about doing so.
Many individuals prefer sprint
training because it takes a lot less time than traditional
forms of cardio that have you going for thirty to sixty minutes
at a time and there are a great number of benefits that will
be seen when you do this more intense form of sprint training
workout.
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EPOC - Excess
Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption
One of the biggest benefits you’ll
get from sprinting is the EPOC effects it creates. This is known
as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption and is where the body
will expend a great deal of calories returning the body back to
its former state after the workout.
Because sprint training is so intense,
this will contribute to a large calorie burn after you have finished
the workout. To even further increase the EPOC that is seen, consider
doing hill sprint training. Since this is even more intense in nature,
it will further challenge your body.
Metabolic Adaptations
Next, when you perform a number of
sprint training workouts, the body will upregulate its ability to
produce enzymes that are going to work at increasing the storage
capacity of the muscle for energy substrates such as ATP.
This then has the corresponding effect
of allowing you to work out harder for a longer period of time without
fatigue setting in. Note though that this occurs when you are working
more on the aerobic side of things, so while it is intense, you
are still utilizing oxygen.
If no oxygen is present, you will
only be able to last 5-20 seconds, regardless of how well conditioned
you are (the better condition you are though, the harder you will
be able to work during that time).
Phosphate Metabolism
The next benefit you’ll get with
sprint training is its effect on phosphate metabolism. Phosphate
creatine stores comprise a major component of the body’s fuel
source for muscular activity, so anything you can do to increase
this is going to be beneficial.
Myokinase is an enzyme that is responsible
for resynthesizing the energy from phosphate creatine, and with
sprint training, it will increase its concentration within the muscle
tissue by up to 20%.
Glycolysis
The next adaptation that will occur
after you’ve been doing sprint training for a period of time
is that of glycolysis. This is the primary form of metabolism used
during a 10 second all out sprint and contributes between 55 and
75% towards energy production during exercise.
Phosphofructokinase (PFK), an enzyme
that catalyses the phosphorylation of the glycolytic intermediate
fructose 6-phosphate), has also been shown to increase when sprint
training is performed, along with the enzymes of lactate dehydrogenase
and glycogen phosphorylase (other enzymes responsible for the glycolysis
system).
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Intramuscular
Buffering Capacity
Finally, the last
adaptation that’s seen with sprint training is the buffering
capacity of the muscle. During glycoglysis, various byproducts
are created such as lactic acid, and when these accumulate,
it causes the extreme feelings of fatigue in the muscle tissues.
This then forces
you to stop exercising as the fatigue sets in and often will
be the end of your workout.
Over time, sprint
training will increase your ability to buffer these byproducts
so that you can then workout for a longer period of time while
maintaining that intensity.
So, next time you’re
debating about whether to do a sprint training session or
a moderate paced cardio session lasting for 40 minutes or
so, opt for the sprint session.
The benefits you’ll
receive are far more numerous and fat loss will be kicked
up a notch as an added benefit. Keep in mind that for these
type of benefits to occur, you want your sprints to last somewhere
in the neighborhood of 20 seconds to 40 seconds, with a work
to rest ration of about 1:2. Repeat this process a total of
6 to 8 times and begin and end with a five minute warm-up
and cool-down.
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About
The Author
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Vince DelMonte is the author
of Your Six Pack Quest found by clicking
here and No Nonsense Muscle Building (click
here for that).
Vince knows what it takes
to build muscle, lose weight and overcome muscle unfriendly
genes in the shortest time possible. He was so skinny growing
up, he earned the nickname Skinny Vinny.
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Over the course of six
months, Vince gained over 41 pounds of rock-hard muscle
and climbed the scale from a scrawny 149 pounds to
a muscular 190 pounds without drugs, without a lot
of supplements and training only three days per week.
After entering the world
of competitive fitness modeling he became the Canadian
Fitness Model Champion in his third show ever! His
transformation even caught the attention of the International
fitness magazine Maximum Fitness which featured a
2 page spread of his transformation story.
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Vince has an Honors Degree
in Kinesiology and has been a Personal Trainer for five
years. He now shares this information with anybody who is
serious about building muscle - especially skinny guys who
can't gain muscle weight.
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