Every Thursday and Sunday for the last year, I’ve gone through the same sprint workout. This time, I find myself dreading following that routine. A warm-up followed by four 100s, four 60s and four 40s…I can’t do it today. I need something different. From business2community.com:
Ask anyone who fell off the bandwagon with their New Year’s fitness resolutions: boring workouts that you dread and only do out of obligation will kill all motivation and enthusiasm for health and fitness.
Even though I’m a creature of routine, I buy into this principle. I use the sprint workout to maximize fat burn and build and maintain speed. I know that I need to continue to implement my usual principles of rest, recovery and short bursts of explosiveness. From nerdfitness.com:
The majority of a sprint workout is going to be spent resting in between sets. This is hard for some people to grasp at first (my self included) but is necessary for getting the training benefits. The longer rest periods allow your muscles to replenish the locally stored energy and your nervous system to work efficiently. When you decided to take shorter rest periods between sprints you don’t allow either of these two things to happen. Incomplete rest can cause you to compensate for tired muscles, reinforce bad running mechanics and if you’re very unlucky, cause a muscle pull. These workouts are just as much of a test of patience as they are a test of your speed.
I’m a champion at the patience part; I fire off emails between sets in an all out effort to exercise (see?) efficient behavior. I just need a different flavor today, dig? I’ve always countered monotony with creativity and spontaneity, so I’m going to get up, walk out of my front door and see what I come up with.
Tick, tick, tick.
I’m back and stoked to share my workout with you over a giant salad, a block of grass fed blue cheese and a lamb burger, all prepared yesterday. Give it a shot, add your seasoning, and let me know how it goes.
First, the warmup:
- 10 minute walk.
- 2 sets of high knee marches for 10 yards
- 2 sets side shuffles, 85% intensity for 15 yards
- 2 sets butt kickers, focused on form, 15 yards
- 2 sets high skips, full intensity, 5 reps each leg
- 2 50 yard dashes at 75%, full recovery
The following sprints were performed from a “starting block position” at 100% intensity in this exact order:
- 30 yards x 1
- 40 yards x 1
- 50 yards x 1
- 60 yards x 1
- 70 yards x 1
- 90 yards x 1
- 100 yards x 1
- 80 yards x 1
- 20 yards x 1
I wanted more variety and realized that the track has a neighbor, the football field. I performed at full intensity:
- 1 10 yard dig
- 1 10 yard out
- 1 15 yard post
- 1 15 yard corner
Not fully satisfied, I did some stair jumping and built up with single reps of a stair at a time with full recovery until I skipped six.
As I walked through some light hills home, I added 3 sets of 15 yard back pedals at full intensity. There is nothing better than getting my workout in while soaking up the Malibu sun.
There are no rules to this fitness game, folks. Create and make your own workout spice rack.
Kap
I like it, good spices.
Thanks, Michelle. See you tomorrow.
When I lived at Pacific Beach, I ran the boardwalk — the spice was visual. Some mornings however I ran windsprints in the sand. Those knocked me OUT.
Sprints of any kind will kick your ass if you’re really getting after them. And I agree. Often time the spices are what you see.
It doesn’t get much better than runnin’ the boardwalk in PB.
Changing it up is always a good thing. I like the change in your cardio workout. Keep’em coming Kap. Have a great weekend
You too, my man.
I really like your descriptions in this blog. It is always good to change things up. I sometimes have trouble making the decision of when to “Spice things up” in terms of my workouts. I usually do it when I don’t feel challenged anymore but after reading this, I feel like I shouldn’t just wait til that moment where I feel like things are too easy for me.
You’ve given me a good push. Thank you Kap!
Off to entertain
-Kelebek
Thanks, Kelebek.
Kap love the site. It is now part of my daily routine. I have always read and heard that you have to vary your lifting program every few months or you body becomes “accustomed to it”, and you stagnate, and that you have to mix it up to keep your body guessing and promote strength and gains in mass. I know you have been locked into 5×5 for quite sometime, so I wanted your take on this. keep grindin
BD,
I’ve been needing a change to my training routine for quite some time both physically and mentally. I’ll keep you posted for sure.
Kap
Another good sprint/ conditioning thing to try and mix things up would be a shuttle run. Start at the 5yd line, sprint to the 10yd line touch it, sprint to the 0yd line touch it and then sprint past your original starting point (5yd line). That is called a 20yd shuttle due to the fact you run a total of 20 yds… I do a 40 yard starting at 10yd to 20yd to 0yd then to starting point.
Its great for staying low for sprints and building explosive starts.
Love it, Kyle. Good stuff.
How long would you consider a good amount of rest time between sprints to get that recovery? That’s always been difficult at me as I am used to coaches simply blowing a whistle to dictate when I run.
Living in Uptown Dallas, so I am always looking for a different cardio workout outside of running Katy Trail.
Love your stuff, Kap.
I used to run the stadium steps at Virginia Tech during my college days and would drive my stick shift Honda home not being able to control the clutch because my legs were shaking so badly. I’d vary the routine by adding push-ups and sit-ups between reps and using different parts of the stadium on different days… now I use my local high school stadium steps which are not nearly as high but go up and down a few times at speed and add in shuttles and suicides on the football and track as needed… Variety is definitely the spice of life…