Treadmills are popular cardiovascular machines that are found in gyms, homes and health clinics. They all have different grades as far as bells and whistles are concerned, but one thing they all have in common is a speed adjustment. This allows you to perform sprints. This challenging workout comes with numerous benefits.
Time Frame
Sprinting involves running as fast as you can for a certain time frame. Due to the intensity of sprinting, you can do a workout in 30 minutes or less. This is beneficial if you have a busy schedule and do not have a lot of time to devote to exercise. Start out with a shorter time frame and work your way up. Even 10 minutes is a good starting point.
Muscle Tone
Long-duration cardiovascular exercise has a tendency to create extremely thin legs. Sprinting, however, takes a maximal amount of force production from your muscles. This in turn causes you to achieve defined and muscular legs in similar fashion to weight training. The main muscles worked are the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and hip flexors. Being that you have to balance your body and produce a high amount of force, you also get the benefit of working your abs.
Aerobic Capacity
Sprinting is a form of interval training. This is performed by alternating your intensity back and forth from high to low throughout your entire workout. According to mayoclinic.com, interval training causes a high caloric expenditure and it also improves your aerobic capacity. With an improved aerobic capacity, you can do daily tasks like walking up multiple flights of stairs with more efficiency.
EPOC
This takes place in the hours after you finish a sprint workout. When you finish a high-intensity workout like sprinting, you body continues to burn calories for an extended period of time to come back down to pre-exercise oxygen and circulation levels. This is known as EPOC, which stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This heightened metabolism helps promote faster weight loss. The harder you sprint, the more benefit you will receive.
Speed
Sprints involve running at a maximal speed. This will in turn improve your speed for sports that involve running, like football, baseball and basketball.
Tips
You can perform sprints a couple different ways on the treadmill. Either alternate your sprints with jogging at a slow pace or sprint and stop altogether to rest. In both cases, make your sprints twice as short as your rest breaks. For example, if you sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 40 seconds. If you are taking complete rest breaks in between your sprints, you need to step off the belt. Do this by grabbing the handrails, lifting your body in the air and placing your feet on the sides of the belt. When it comes time to do your next sprint, lift yourself up, slowly lower yourself onto the belt and go back into a sprint. Because sprinting is so intense, do not do workouts on consecutive days.
Warning
Sprinting is an advanced type of exercise. If you are new to exercise, had a long layoff or are on any type of medication that has an effect on your heart rate, make sure to get approval from your doctor before you do sprint training.
Member Comments