is sprint training good for me?
In short: Yes! There are numerous benefits to including sprinting within your fitness regime or sports training. They include:
If you’re an athlete this is a no-brainer (I’ll start here because this is the population I deal with). Being faster than your opponent can help set you apart and assist you in having a greater impact on the field, court or ice. Remember: if you have two athletes of similar skill level, then the faster, more athletic, athlete will win the majority of the time.
Even if you’re not an ‘athlete’ playing a sport, due to the high intensity of sprinting, energy usage is higher than other forms of training - meaning you can really firm up those jiggly bits. You’ll also burn more calories after your sprints too, due to a phenomenon known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC.
The forces required in sprinting (especially during the acceleration phase) are extremely high meaning muscle growth!
The dynamic nature of sprinting helps create greater joint mobility and muscle tissue extensibility; helping to increase your durability and injury resilience
Finally, and probably most importantly, if zombies attack you won’t be dinner if you’re the fastest in your neighborhood!
To end, I’ll say this: Sprinting is amazing. Whether you want to crank up your training (lose weight/ gain more definition) or you’re an athlete looking to gain a competitive edge on the competition, sprinting (and speed) is the undisputed king of athletic movement. That being said, please be careful with it. Especially if you’re new to it, or you haven’t sprinted in a while. It’s called progressive overload for a reason! Find a good solid program (written by a speed pro) or find a coach or club that can get you sprinting in a safe and reasonable manner. I’ve dealt with way too many athletes who come to me with an injury after going too hard, too early.