Hi! Thanks for the encouragement and helpful tips when I sent in an ask about track a while back. I've decided at the end of things it is sprints and hurdles I want to focus on, found a track club in my area where training would start in September where they hold practice twice a week. However, I do want to stick to training 5x a week and am wondering if you've got sprinter-specific workout recommendations (esp weights + plyo!) for other days. Thanks! (I was formerly mafiaprinceza if that helps)
Yay I remember you, thatâs great Iâm glad to hear that. Always a pleasure to help!
Well typically most track and field athletes will train 5-6 times per week, so Iâm glad to hear that you are planning on training more than twice per week. Evidently, if you are considering moving forward in the track and field world biweekly training wouldnât be sufficient because you need to build and maintain strength, and in order to do so you need to train more than twice per week (in my opinion). High levels of relative strength are necessary in many sports for world-class success. The same rules apply for recreational athletes or guys who just want to look good naked. With the exception of a handful of pure strength sports, a leaner body will perform better and faster!
The fact that your training only starts in September is a great thing because it will give you plenty of time to build muscles and develop your strength, stamina and endurance; these are all very important aspects when it comes to sprinting.
Sprinters focus A LOT on strength and this is why they are some of the leanest and strongest athletes on the planet. These athletes are the total package of strength, power, speed and explosiveness wrapped up into a lean mean running machine. They possess the perfect storm of fast twitch dominance, exceptional reaction time, great work capacity, and a favorable endocrine profile. Physically, they look pretty damn good too. Now you may suspect that a sprinterâs physical characteristics are all a product of awesome genetics, but thatâs only one aspect of the resultant physical outcome. Yes, a certain body type is preferential for success in sprinting, but training, lifestyle, and diet all have a big impact on the expression of physical qualities. To understand my point, just attend a collegiate level track meet and youâll note that certain track events develop specific physical characteristics in their participants.Â
For example, if you look around a track and field event sometime and youâll notice the relationship between sprinters and bodybuilders actually goes both ways, meaning a lot of full-time sprinters also have damn impressive bodies! Even the guy or girl who places dead last in the 200 or 400m sprint will still typically have well developed glutes, hamstrings, and fairly low body fat levels. Even though they may not have what it takes to win even a Junior College track meet, their body resembles that of a world class athlete. But what does it really take to look like these athletes? I attribute this to the training.
First and foremost, you will have to focus more on APPEARANCE than weight loss! Building muscles means than you will eventually put on weight! I feel if you focus on the numbers it can add a sense of unnecessary stress, especially if youâre working hard. Before you start freaking out about putting on weight letâs take a look at the wonders muscle building does to your body.
FOCUS ON APPEARANCE NOT THE NUMBERS!
BUILDING MUSCLE AND BURNING FAT SIMULTANEOUSLY: IS IT POSSIBLE?
If I remember well one of your concerns when your first inboxed was in regards to fat loss.Â
I didnât really touch on that matter previously when I replied to you, so I will take the time in this post to touch on that aspect. Youâre probably looking at these pictures and thinking âwell most of these girls were already thin to begging with, what if I want to build muscles, but lose fat at the same time?â
Can I build muscles while trying to lose fat? Yes, but before touching on that I want us to pause and analyze the terminology Iâve used, notice how I mentioned  âfat lossâ instead of âweight lossâ.  Why? I always feel the need to mention the difference between losing weight and losing fat when I write posts like this because the âweight lossâ mindset is so prevalent in our culture. In short, I donât want you to lose weight, I want you to shred fat!
This distinction is really important because the wrong types of exercise cause you to lose weight (which often means muscle) instead of just fat. Hereâs an abstract from a post Iâve written:Â
People often say they want to lose weight. This is sort of a dumb statement, because âweightâ can be a few different things. For example⊠water, glycogen, muscle or fat. Hell, you can cut off a leg and youâll lose âweightâ just fine. In reality however, what most of us want to lose is fat, NOT muscle.
Whatâs the difference between weight loss & fat loss? People seem to use both terms interchangeably. After reading hopefully youâll understand the difference between weight loss & fat loss, but also which one you should aim for and how.
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. Â Whatâs the difference? Letâs start by defining weight loss & fat loss so you know what I mean here. If you want to lose weight, itâs most likely because you carry too much fat. There are people who must lose weight, like athletes before a competition, but most want fat loss. So stop weighting yourself. Remember above I mentioned you will need to focus on your appearance rather than the numbers!
2 people with similar height can weigh the same, but look completely different because one has lower body fat than the other. Check the picture below for an example. The more muscle your body caries the slimmer you appear to be.
That being said, letâs answer our main question (can one build muscles and lose fat simultaneously?). As I mentioned earlier yes! However, hereâs the dilemma; every time you are trying the lose fat you can lose your pretty hard-earned lean muscle mass while only trying to lose your ugly body fat! The body will always try to preserve as much fat as it can; the body for some reason like to hold onto fat, so it will burn anything it can as fuel before burning fat. You do not want to lose muscle - the goal when losing fat is to preserve as much muscle as possible. Many people lose muscle when they lose fat. This is not desirable because it spells havoc in the long term. Even though you can achieve very quick weight loss this way, it comes at a tremendous cost. Losing muscles slows down your metabolism so itâs inevitable that you will gain back the weight very quickly, usually accompanied by a few pounds of fat you didnât have before you lost weight.
The body doesnât really give a crap about what you want. It just knows that in order for it to survive and function under the current conditions, it will need to pull stored energy from somewhere. And that can mean fat, muscle or a combination of both.
Here are a few tips I consider to be the best ways to lose fat WITHOUT losing muscle; Iâll try to keep it shortâŠ
Avoid Excessive Amounts Of Cardio (LISS)
The most pervasive myth when it comes to losing fat is that âcardioâ is the number one fat burner. Thatâs a belief thatâs leading a bunch of people to failure and poorer health.
When I use the term cardio, Iâm talking about any routine or program that puts you in the âtarget heart rate zoneâ for extended periods of time (typically 30 minutes or longer). This could be running, Tae Bo, certain P90X workouts, ellipticals, Jillian Michaels, and the list goes on and on.
Iâm not going to spend this post tearing down cardio, though. Instead, Iâm going to tell you what kind of exercise actually shreds fat and helps you sculpt your body so you can focus all of your time and energy there rather than on something thatâs counterproductive to your goals.
Now when Iâm talking about cardio it is important to differentiate between two types of cardio:
1) HITT: HIIT stands for High intensity interval training, which consists of short sprint intervals coupled with low moderate intensity work. An example of this would be a 30 second sprint followed by a 4 minute steady pace walk to cool down and bring your heart rate back to normal and then repeating it.
Studies have shown that HIIT can be effective for both sprinters and endurance athletes and it can be incorporated into just about any training protocol whether it be weight training, sprinting, rowing, climbing, or sport specific workouts.
The key is to pick exercises that use the majority of muscle groups. Using HIIT for isolation exercises will be ineffective. However, using them for full body exercises like sprinting, squats, deadlifts, and plyometrics will really kick your fat loss into high gear.
2) LISS: LISS stands for Low intensity steady state cardio, which consists of purely low Âmoderate intensity work. An example of this would be walking on the treadmill or riding the bike and being able to hold a conversation.
Having said that, letâs solve the debate on low intensity (duration) vs. high intensity workouts (intensity). There are many conflicting statement about how long and how hard you need to exercise in order to lose fat. In my opinion, unless you are obese I wouldnât recommend overdoing extended cardio sessions (LISS) all the time. Why?
Well first of all, in my personal opinion individuals that should perform extended period of low intensity cardio such as jogging are obese individuals, athletes such as distance runners, triathletes, or someone needing to lose muscle tissue. Yes, you read right, unless your goal is to have LESS lean muscle mass, the hamster wheel approach to energy system work is not for you.
Second of all, because the body is very adaptive. We tend to see a lot of people doing hours and hours a week of LISS and according to calculations they should be losing pounds, but they canât lose anything because your metabolism adjusts to low intensity exercise. It just doesnât cut it because itâs just a calorie burn at that time, not 24-hour energy expenditure. If you do LISS all the time, youâre basically trading calories in and calories out and you can cut these same calories through diet and still get the same effects.
Steady state cardio may encourage fat loss in the beginning, but your body will quickly adapt to that training intensity and create a new set point. Once this occurs, fat loss will slow, muscle loss will be encouraged, and other negative side effects like increased hunger and systemic inflammation (even injury) begin to occur.Â
Ex: You burn 200 calories over 30 min of LISS, you can cut out 200 calories through carbs or fat and get the same effect as opposed to getting a 24 hour energy expenditure through HIIT cardio.Â
Third of all, because your hormones and mitochondria love intensityÂ
Now, Iâm not saying that low intensity workouts are bad. Low intensity exercises are beneficial for warming up and cooling down, before and after high intensity phases. Many people have legitimate orthopaedic, cardiac, and even psychological reasons to avoid HIIT, so LISS is their only option. Besides, low intensity exercises are also good for the elderly, anyone recovering from an illness or injury, someone who is significantly overweight and out of shape, or someone who is just beginning to workout.
An excellent approach to your training is to mix intensities. Sometimes you go easy and long, and other times you go hard and fast. Iâm a big believer in doing both HIIT and LISS combined. I feel they both should be incorporated into your routines since each have specifically different effects. Here are the following reasons why:
You canât do HIIT 5Â6 days a week because eventually it will have a negative impact on your weight training and interfere with growth
HIIT could be dangerous if not used right and could lead to injury
HIIT and LISS on either a combined, cyclical, or rotational basis seems to be the best formula in my opinion
The Bottom LineDo the type of cardio that you have a personal preference for. Whichever one fires you up the most because youâll most likely work harder at it. HIIT is quicker, proves to be more effective for fat loss, creates metabolic changes, and helps with muscle retention but not everybody can do HIIT. LISS is safer, but takes twice as long to accomplish similar things (except for obese individuals) and it still has its place for fat loss in moderate amounts, from a pure calorie burning standpoint (meaning only to burn calories & not make changes to your metabolism). My intentions werenât to favor one form of cardio and bash the other, even though it sounded like that. My intent was to educate and notify you that times have changed and science is proving some good stuff with HIIT cardio. But at the end of the day itâs up to you on what kind of cardio suits you best.
Hopefully, after reading this you should have a really good idea of what kind of cardio is right for you and how to effectively use it.
    2. Maintain Strength/Intensity/Weight On The Bar
The single most important training requirement for anyone who wants to lose fat without losing muscle is maintaining your current levels of strength. When on a fat loss diet, just maintaining your current levels of strength (aka intensity, aka the weight on the bar) is what now signals your body to maintain muscle. If that signal goes away, your bodyâs need to keep your pretty muscle tissue around goes away right along with it. Weight training obviously needs to be kept around as it provides the primary signal that tells your body to maintain muscle and only burn body fat.
Thatâs why the insanely stupid myth of lifting heavier weights to build muscle but then lifting lighter weights (for higher reps) when you want to lose fat, get lean and get toned is the absolute WORST thing you could possibly believe when youâre trying to avoid losing muscle. In reality, you lift heavy weight to build muscle, and then lift that same heavy weight if you want to actually maintain that muscle. If you start purposely lifting lighter weights while in a caloric deficit, your body essentially thinks: âHmmm, it looks like we only need to lift lighter weights now. I guess all of that muscle I built for the purpose of being able to lift heavy weight is no longer needed. Time to start burning it for energy instead of body fat! YOU DONâT WANNA BURN MUSCLE YOU WANNA BURN FAT! Maintaining the amount of weight you currently lift on every exercise is the key weight-training requirement for losing fat WITHOUT losing muscle.
Muscle Gains & Fat Loss. Youâll gain muscle while losing fat when you get into strength training. But on the weight scale it will look like youâre not making progress: your body-weight doesnât change. Track your body fat using a fat caliper and youâll see your body fat is going down.
While weight training obviously still needs to be kept around as it provides the primary signal that tells the body to maintain muscle and only burn body fat, cardio on the other hand is completely optional. Cardio without strength training & diet is useless. If you are not morbidly obese excess cardio will burn muscle, not fat.
Now that we have discussed cardio and weight lifting, letâs answer your main question regarding sprint workouts. There are various sprint routines that can be found on the net, but since you asked me about my recommendations Iâll share some of my favourite sprint workouts.
During the indoor collegiate track season I stick to the drills we do during practice. Evidently, when Iâm not having practice or during the off-season I have my own routine. When it comes to my personal routine I would say that it is a mix of everything; all the knowledge Iâve acquired over the years. I try to incorporate different exercises; I like exercises that target the whole body â reason why I love sprinting.
As Iâve mentioned above it is impossible to do HIIT 7 days a week because it will have a negative impact on your weight training and interfere with growth â reason why I am a big believer in doing both HIIT and LISS combined. Usually, there will be 3 to 4 where Iâll focus on HIIT exercises such as sprinting and the remaining 3 days Iâll do LISS.Â
Some of my favorite HITT exercises include:
Sprinting obviously (when I go to the track I like to spent a least an hour)Â
Hill sprints â Hill sprints are amazing; theyâre a pain in the a**, but OMG they give you stunning warriors legs. The steeper the hill is = the better leg workout youâll get
If you are planning on incorporating sprinting to your routine as HIIT workout, always start with a dynamic warm up to prime the nervous system for fast movements.
Now you should be nice and fired up ready to turn it loose on the track. The two track sessions below are devised to target different aspects in a sprinters trainingâboth vital to their competition prep.
TRACK TRAINING SESSION ONE (Conditioning Run)8 x 200m, walk back in 2 minutes for rest, target time: 30 seconds or under.
TRACK TRAINING SESSION TWO (Race Modeling Run)Â 250m, 150m x 2; Rest 90 seconds in between reps and 8 minutes between sets.
*If you donât know what 200m, 150m dash looks like donât worryâ what you can do is sprint half the track and walk/jog the other half this will do the job as well.
Hills sprints, as I mentioned above are a pain the butt, but damn Lord they do wonders to your legs and have the ability to transform your entire body.
Hill sprints are a great way to dramatically increase the caloric expenditure of an activity that already burns a boatload of calories when performed on flat ground. Again, think of hill sprints as a cross between sprinting and weightlifting. This has amazing benefits on body composition!
Because of the inclined surface, you are forced to lean forward as you sprint, which teaches you the proper acceleration mechanics that you would want when sprinting on a flat surface. Hill sprints actually become your sprint coach because you almost canât help but do it right!
Hills sprints also teach aggressive arm and shoulder action, which is so critical for maximal acceleration. You simply cannot sprint fast up a hill without deliberate arm action. This helps teach the coordination and little-appreciated upper-body drive needed to sprint effectively on a flat surface.
If you cannot find an all-weather running track close to your house hill sprints are great alternatives. I am not gonna lie to you they are brutal, so the first time you run hills I recommend not doing more than 5 sprints at about 75% of your maximum effort. They really are brutal and you donât want to burn yourself out on the first set. Increase your intensity with every sprint. Add 1-2 sprints per week until you are performing 20 per workout with maximum effort.
Some of my favourite weight/strength training as a sprinter includes:
Squats (all type of squats = sumo, barbell, dumbbell, name them all I LOVE squats)
Kneeling DB Front Shoulder Raise
Overhead Dumbbell Shoulder Press
They are so much more, but these are just a few of the weight/strength training I favour. Â
NUTRITION/SUPPLEMENTATION
I really wasnât going to touch on nutrition since this post is already long, but I figured out if youâre going to train like a sprinter might as well know how to eat like one.
Now that youâve had a taste of what a sprinters training is like, donât forget that expending that much physically requires you to put double back in to recover. Unlike distance runners whose diets comprise of carb loading for longer periods of running, sprinters lean more towards higher amounts of proteins (perfect when trying to build muscles and lose fat) and fats for the short amounts of explosive strength their events require.
3. Eat Enough ProteinThird tips when trying to lose weight and build muscle eating enough protein! I canât stress this enough! Protein and BCAAs are life and they will be your best friends!
Protein: As the main source for building muscle, protein is absolutely necessary for your muscle-building strategy. Take in around 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (this equates to 180-270 grams for a 180 pound individual). This will guarantee that your muscles will be getting the correct dose of amino acids for maintaining and building muscle tissue. Some prime sources are chicken, lean steak, fish, turkey, ground meat, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and protein powders.
BCAAs: Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and the branched-chain amino acidsâleucine, isoleucine, and valineâare the best of the bunch. BCAAs are as close to magic foods as weâll ever get. They help you recover from hard workouts by reducing the protein breakdown within your muscles; they increase testosterone and growth hormone, your bodyâs most important fat-fighting and muscle-building hormones; and they have their most profound effect when youâre following law number 1 and cutting calories in order to lose weight.
Fat is emergency storage for your body, so when you get on low calorie diets your body will burn muscle first. The first and best way of preventing this is by getting a sufficient daily protein intake; the single most important dietary requirement for maintaining muscle. Itâs not meal timing, or supplements, or the exact size of your caloric deficit, or the quality of the foods you eat.
Nutritionally speaking, losing fat without losing muscle is all about eating enough protein every day. Even in the absence of a proper weight training routine, more of the weight you lose will be body fat rather than muscle mass just as a result of an increased protein intake. So, the first step of any muscle-preserving diet is always getting your ideal amount of protein for the day. What is âideal?â Well, the good old â1-gram of protein per pound of body weightâ recommendation still remains a perfectly fine starting point for most people with this goal in mind. Since your focus is on fat loss I would recommend to consume foods that are low in calories and high in protein such as egg whites, Greek yogurt, chicken breast, tuna, etc.
Some of my favourites supplements include: L-Leucine by Source Naturals and Combat Protein Powder & BCAAs by MusclePharm.
Sprinters diet roughly resemble that;
Fruits and Vegetables  (The darker the better - 30%)
â Raspberriesâ Kaleâ Yamsâ Bananasâ Broccoliâ Pineappleâ Spinachâ Blueberriesâ Leeksâ Pomegraniteâ Seaweed
Protein Sources and Amounts (1g per pound throughout your day - 60%)â Chicken Breastsâ Fish (Salmon, Tilapia, Mahi-mahi, Tuna)â Lean Beaf (Ground chuck, London broil, Flank Steak)
Fats 10%â Natural Peanut Butterâ Almond Butterâ Oils (Flax seed, Fish oil)
4. Donât Reduce Calories By TOO Much
Last but not least, one more thing worth mentioning is fuelling. If you train like an athlete you will need to fuel your body like one.
   "Athletes eat and train, they donât diet and exercise.â
As you must know, in order to lose any amount of body fat, you need to create a caloric deficit. And that means youâre going to need to reduce your calorie intake below maintenance level so stored body fat can be burned for energy instead. However, you should NEVER starve yourself or skip meal, never.
As I mentioned previously in one of my post I do not believe in [die]ting. I disagree with the whole concept of counting calories and drastic calories reduction. I believe that athletes are warriors and we should feed ourselves like warriors.
Hereâs an excerpt from one of my post, which perfectly illustrates my point of view:
When I hear people saying that they donât eat, skip meals or drastically reduce their calories because theyâre trying to lose fat it makes me laugh (deep inside) because not eating or eating too little actually slows down the metabolism, so by doing this people are sabotaging their weight loss efforts; slow metabolism = NO weight loss! The body thinks itâs starving, so it will go on the âsurvivalâ mode which means it will literally slow down its calorie-burning capacity in order to âsurviveâ. Â
In other words, by not eating the body will senses that it is in âtroubleâ, so it will try to conserve the few amount of energy it has left as much as possible, which will result in a slower metabolism! Fat is emergency storage for your body. Your body will burn muscle first if you get on low calorie diets, so the body is going to use muscles as fuel, yes muscles, so not only the metabolism will slow down, but the body will also lose some precious muscles.
So⊠Moral of the story, you donât have to eat less - you just have to eat BETTER!! In the above picture you can clearly see the sticking difference between 1575 calories of âjunkâ foods and healthy foods.Â
I wanted to include an example of my workout routine, but as you can see that is quite a long post already đ⊠I went a bit overboard, but I wanted this post to be as informative as it could be. Anyways, I hope it answered your questions.
SOURCES AND HELPFUL LINKS/ARTICLES
Hereâs a few articles I thought you might find interesting:
Short + Steep + Swift = Strength Hill sprints can make you faster at all distances
WHY HILL SPRINTS ARE THE FASTEST WAY OF GETTING STRONG, FAST, AND LEAN.
Building Muscle And Burning Fat Simultaneously: Is It Possible?
Build Muscle & Lose Fat Simultaneously?
Build Muscle & Lose Fat Simultaneously - Yes, It Is Possible!
Hill Sprints For Fat Loss
Calories Burned = Fat Burned = Weight Loss Low Intensity Workout vs. High Intensity Workouts
HOW TO BURN MORE FAT WITH HILL SPRINTS
How to Sprint Your Way to a 6-Pack
How does leucine help with weight-loss
MARIA SHED 30 POUNDS AND COMPETED IN FIGURE!
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