Treadmills open the door for a wide range of workout opportunities, including sprints designed to build speed, power and endurance. Sprints increase the intensity of your workout, helping you burn more calories, promoting weight loss. People with heart disease or other cardiovascular problems should talk with their doctors before starting a sprinting regimen.
Treadmill Type
Sprinting on a treadmill can put a lot of stress on its deck and shock absorption system. Therefore, use a commercial-grade treadmill that can stand up to the abuse. You also need a treadmill that offers a fast enough speed to accommodate your sprint. Commercial-grade powered treadmills offer speeds of up to 15 mph, which should be adequate for most people. For optimal results, you will at times need to run at up to 95 percent of your maximum speed.
Sprint 8
Phil Campbell of bodybuilding.com recommends a treadmill sprinting workout known as the Sprint 8 to increase your body's natural production of human growth hormone by up to 530 percent. HGH is produced in the body and has an important role in muscle growth. This workout takes about 20 minutes to complete. After warming up for up to 10 minutes, you sprint for 30 seconds followed by 30 to 60 seconds of rest. Complete a total of eight cycles to finish the Sprint 8 workout.
Sprint Interval Training
Sprint interval training uses the same methodology as the Sprint 8 workout with a little more flexibility. Rather than sticking to 30-second intervals, you can increase or decrease this time according to your fitness level. Len Kravitz, who holds a doctorate in health, physical education and recreation, recommends on his website doing four to six 30-second sprints each separated by four-and-a-half minutes of moderate exercise. After warming up on the treadmill, you sprint as fast as you can for 30 seconds, then walk or jog at a moderate pace during your "rest" period. Continue this cycle for a total workout time of 20 to 30 minutes. Kravitz says this sprint workout will help you burn fat directly and burn calories for an extended period beyond the end of each workout.
Considerations
Sprinting is an effective way to increase your maximal oxygen consumption, burn fat, increase metabolism and increase muscle response. However, it's an advanced training technique that shouldn't be attempted by people who are obese or out of shape, or by those who suffer from knee and joint pain. Sprinting on a treadmill is a high-impact exercise that can aggravate knee and joint pain for people with arthritis or osteoporosis. You can still get an effective workout, however, by scaling down the intensity of each of these treadmill exercises to lessen the impact on your joints.
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