Sprint To Your Ultimate Body

Hi Joel,

I have received my diet and workout plan 2 days ago and got down to it right away. I went to the gym today with my workout plan…wow did I sweat! I followed with my intervall training plan…same thing here: lot of work! I think my fat cells just got the message: “Get the hell out of here!” You guys have to know that I have diabeties (from wrong eating in my youth probably) and I had a word with my doctor explaining to me that we have a hard time loosing weight due to insulin which I agree with and she (Doc) told me that I would respond to a low to no carbs high protein diet. Guess what I got from Joel: exactly that. Joel even punished me with no cheating day, but I understand why: Insulin. So to wrap this up: thank you Joel for your great help and I’ll send follow ups. I really feel well supported in this project and I find my personnal plan and coach brilliant!

Best Regards,

Francis

Joel,

Great post. The cool thing about sprinting type interval training is how efficient it is as far as time goes. I have got a lot out of body weight circuits as well. Craig Ballantyne has one called “The Crazy 8 Body Weight Circuit”…there is a free video on Youtube explaining how to do this at home. This is a way to do an interval style workout with the same after burn effect without cardio equipment. You can do it in a medium sized room with no equipment.

The whole idea of pushing hard, getting it done, and then getting on with your day works wonders. I’m glad you spoke about it here, because despite this being such an effective way to train, I rarely see people doing this in the gym.

Another solid article!

Rusty

I think the following article pretty much sums it up.
http://www.thebodygenesis.com/myths-under-the-microscope-part-1-the-low-intensity-fat-burning-zone

It’s a good read

I totally agree with this. I am in my 2nd round of Insanity with ShaunT., and when we get into Max Interval training…it literally kicks your butt. I’ve seen amazing results. I’ve lost a total of 21 inches so far and I’m not even half way finished in my 2nd round.

I think interval training is great; working out at the higher intensity gives me a greater feeling of accomplishment. Spending hours doing slow cardio is rather soul destroying. The results, i.e. faster weight loss speak for themselves.

I’d recommend getting an interval timer, especially when the work/rest times differ. I’ve been using the Gymboss Interval Timer for around 6 months now and it’s simple to use, inexpensive and does exactly what you need.

I noted you mentioned a 1:1/2 work: rest split which instantly made me think of Tabata protocols. What do you think of them? Do you use them in your workouts?

Thank you for another great article, I do enjoy getting a knowledge boost in te mornings from your posts.

thanks joel gonna use this and cant wait to get results thanks again

High Intensity Interval Training is pretty straight forward and examples on the internet/web ABOUND. How about 3 or 4 workouts designed around the Metabolic Resistance Training concept? Better yet help us design our own workouts by this concept or something similar: give us numerous lower compound and isolation exercises, upper compound and isolation exercises, and abdominal exercises and let us pick 3/2/2 from each of those categories. 10-15 reps per exercise, light/moderate weight, no rest between exercises. Complete a “circuit” of 3 lower, 2 upper, 2 ab. Rest one minute. Repeat 2-3 more times. This is metabolic resistance training from what I understand. Want to ramp it up? Consume your last meal an hour to an hour and a half before it to have enough carbs in the muscle to get through the workout but no free-floating insulin in the bloodstream. This means lots of lactic acid in the muscles, no time to clear it, and THEREFORE lots of HGH released and LOTS OF FAT BURNED. Joel, help those of us new to exercise, or at least new to the concept of hight intensity cardio and weight training, by designing 3 or 4 workouts and posting them along with lists of lower, upper, ab, and combo exercises to pick and choose from. I know I am repeating myself but I am not always the clearest of writers and I want to make my intention clear. What do you say, Joel??

Danelle

I’m a year-round rower so I do my interval training on the water as well as on my twice-daily 10k bike ride. At 57, I am rowing with women less than half my age so I know it’s working for me.

Thanks for this Joel will start working on next week, – looking forward to reading on Monday.

Jade.

I like the sprinting approach because it works your fast twitch fibers, it’s a great workout for calorie burn and afterburn.

@Julian, you can definitely turn jumping rope into an interval exercise. It’s the same concept as running. Speed it up for a time, slow it down. Do doubles where you jump up higher each time for 30 seconds and then drop it down to regular. If you jump rope a lot you probably have some different movements down and know what feels good for you, so just try experimenting. High intensity/low intensity, in 1:1 or 2:1 intervals.

I didn;’t see a mention of a good warm up, which is essential before doing sprinting.

I tend to use the rowing machine for my intervals as I’m scared I’m going to twang a hamstring.

Gavin

Hey Joel,
Yeh. This is so like having my own personal trainer. Thankyou so much. This will mix it up for me. I think of your comment all the time – “trust in the process” and that’s what I’m doing. It’s a revelation.

70% HR max ?
I’m a 70 year old, overweight, minimal fitness, no gym.
I’ve lost 3 stone, and there is a hill I can use for training, I could try the early weeks but have no idea how to assess my heart rate – am I supposed to break off every 30 seconds and check my blood pressure? Duh!
Bear with me, I’m trying but a lot of this is terra incognita to me :~)
Cheers
The Hurklecat

@Hurklecat,
Do 1-2 minutes and then check your heart rate. Of course, if your body feels like it’s pushing things, stop whatever you’re doing, move it to a slow walk if you’re jogging, etc., and check it. Your max heart rate is 220-your age, so 150, according to that method. However, it does depend on your body type and such but that’s a good place to start. So 70% would be 105. For you, it won’t take as intense of a workout to get to that heart rate, so keep that in mind. You can get a simple heart rate monitor that you wear like a watch for pretty cheap, you can also do the old “check your pulse” method, watch the second-hand of a clock tick 6 seconds while you count your pulse, then multiply by 10 and that’s your current heart rate.

Thanks! That’s a big help.@ jM:

Great workout – BUT just remember- sprint intervals (the starting and stopping ) is very hard on the knees- mostly the patella tendons. I find running for a minute as opposed to all out sprinting- works just as well. And if youre wondering how I know this- I was out of commision for a few weeks with patelar tendonitis and the sprots medicine DR. convinced me it was from the sprint intervals. I took off 3 weeks for rehab- went back and did running intervals and have not had a kneee issue since.

@hurklecat
no problem! (This is jM after setting up my gravatar haha)

@wendy
true sprints are tough on all joints, but especially the knees. Remember people, you can do Interval Training at any intensity level that doesn’t involve only raising the intensity of running/cycling/swimming, etc. You don’t just have to take a slow burn cardio exercise and bring the intensity up in order to make it Interval training. Running is simply a great choice because our leg muscles are massive muscles so firing off the fast twitch fibers of large muscle groups will cause a greater calorie burn. Swimming is killer too but not everyone has access to a pool nor the swimming skills to do a true high/max intensity workout in a pool without the risk of drowning, etc.

People who need a lower impact workout can do medium resistance (for you, whatever medium would be) band work at a fast pace, bodyweight workouts with explosive energy for intervals, etc.

Sky’s the limit, get creative!

I agree with and love the method and I do something similar with the cycling class that I take 3x a week. However, my 55 year old metabolism is non existent and while I am slowly getting into shape and becoming stronger, my weight/fat is still not budging however. The only way I can lose anything is just not eat at all. Not a viable thing to do. I have osteoarthritis in my hips and am unable to walk/run/sprint, but I can cycle.

Can these be used with jumping jacks in case it’s raining outside and I don’t have cycling or other machines.

I’m a 48 year old nationally ranked sprinter and I have a bit of a beef with the HIIT sprint interval recommendations (not just yours, but to everyone who suggests work/rest intensity/intervals like the ones above).

If you’re a REAL sprinter (more about that in a second), and you really do “max effort” for 20 seconds, and the recommendation is 40 seconds of recovery… you’ll have 2, maybe 3, sprints in you before you’re simply lying on the ground trying to catch your breath.

“Max effort” for someone who is a true sprinter taxes the ATP system much more than it does for someone who is built to be a distance runner. One of my best friends is a distance runner… and while he can do the intervals you describe, his “max effort” is a whole different animal than mine. He maxes out at 15 mph. I hit 23. His heart rate tops out at 160 in 20 seconds. Mine hits 200.

I competed in a track meet last night, in fact. And after the 100m (which was only 12 seconds of max effort), all of the sprinters went through the same recovery: Totally fine for 10 seconds after the race. Then the anaerobic “slap” happens and you can barely breathe for the next 20-30 seconds. Then, for the next 3-5 minutes, your muscles are WASTED and the thought of going all-out again seems ridiculous (if you tried, it would be at 75% speed… and the next would be at 30%… and by #3 you’d have such oxygen debt that standing up gets tricky).

I’ve found that the only way to account for the differences in sprint/max-effort ability is to not use time to gauge recovery, but heart rate (which usually means that the recovery on the latter sprints is a bit longer than the first few).

Do you go over your 70-85% heart rate during the sprinting portion and bring it down to the percentage rate during the walking portion?, or you are not to go over the 70-85% at any time in fact come below that number during the walk off portion. I am 55 so I should not go above 140 heart rate? I am not completely clear. Thanks

Hi Joel,

If you do not have access to any equipment, can you do fast running on the spot for the interval sprints?

Are there any other exercises that you can do at home that can be turned into interval sprint type workouts?

Many thanks and I always look forward to reading your posts.

xx Bonnie

@ Wesley:
The part you highlighted is indeed not a set of sprinting workouts. It’s part of a progressive training workout plan to get your heart into “sprinting shape”, as Joel put it. Notice the sprint interval workouts aren’t undertaken until later weeks.
It does make me wonder, though, why he doesn’t have you doing less intense intervals with more rest in between to start out instead. Hmm….

Great input — I’ve used IT before and love it! way less boring, way less prone to injury :-)

A question tho — when I use ARMHR, I never feel like I’m working hard enuf.
My number @ 70% os 118 and at 85% is just 143.
220-52*70%=117.6
220-52*.85=142.8

I’ve been working out a few years – am fairly fit, have great blood pressur (115/70) & rhr (62) and am getting back to really fit after a winter of surgery and caretaking (I donated a kidney to DH) and if I work out at 118, i’m barely breaking a sweat. My baseline for recovery tends to be about 125 and working hard runs about 160/170. I’ve long ago abandoned the AR mhr – but I don’t know how to figure another approach for doing methodical, progressive IT.

Are there other ways of calculating MHR? Thanks! Becky

Thanks for posting this. You had sent it before and this reminder will get me doing the sprinting parts again. I do a rowing interval that I really like and it does my body good. Row 500m then rest 1 minute and repeat 6 times. It is basically a two minute row followed by a 1 minute rest so you are done in less than 20 minutes. The concept 2 machine I use has this as a built in workout, so the machine does the timing for you. I am 56 years old and now that I exercise I am looking forward to the next 56 years.
Mike