How many workout fads have you seen at this point in your life? HIIT, muscle confusion, CrossFit, Starting Strength, boot camps, and probably countless others. While these programs do work for many, sometimes simplicity in a workout develops consistency – the real key to long-term fitness success. And nothing is more simple, functional, and athletically beneficial than running at full speed. Sprinting is the anti-fad workout, but do sprints burn fat? Read on to see why the answer is “yes” and how to implement sprinting into your routine.
A quick disclaimer – although the movement is simple, sprints are not for everyone. If you haven’t run faster than a jog or done anything athletic/competitive recently in the past few months, consider yourself overweight, or carry an injury (anywhere on your body, since sprints use the entire body), then you need to take it slow if you want to start sprinting. If your body is not ready for full-speed exertion, you will injure yourself. And injury will significantly set back your progress towards whatever goals you have.
Otherwise, you should start adding sprints to your weekly routine right now. We’ll run through the science to answer “do sprints burn fat?”, as well as layout how to work your way up to sprinting if you are out of shape. Then we’ll cover the benefits beyond fat burning and how to add sprints to your workouts.
The science behind fat burning and sprinting
If you want to lose fat, adding sprints to your routine can accelerate fat loss. Compared to high-intensity interval training (HIIT), those undergoing sprint training burned 40% more fat and exercised for 61% less time. In the same study, sprinting blew moderate-intensity continuous training (i.e. jogging) out of the water, as sprinters burned 92% more fat and spent 71% less time exercising (all of these differences are controlling for diet).
More fat loss combined with shorter workouts – sounds like a miracle drug. So how does it work?
Well, without getting to science-y, the all-out intensity of sprinting generates these benefits. Going at full speed stresses your body in a specific way that sends signals to raise its resting metabolic rate, so you burn more calories at rest.
This doesn’t mean that sprinting is easier. In fact, most people actually find these workouts more taxing, and they require more rest afterwards. But a 10 minute workout with 6-10 full intensity sprints will likely stoke up your fat burning fire more than any other 10 minute workout can.
One huge point to note, you can only burn fat if you are in a caloric deficit. You can’t do sprints while eating whatever you want, and expect to lose fat. You still have to follow a weight-loss diet. Sprinting only accelerates this process if your nutrition is already dialed-in for weight loss. Only a proper diet will correctly allow you to answer “do sprints burn fat?”
How to work your way up to sprinting
If you are obese or severely overweight, don’t worry about sprinting for now. You need to lose weight through a caloric deficit and lower-intensity exercise. The last thing you need is an injury from engaging in overly-intense exercise too quickly. You can research many different ways to do this (this article is a good start). The key is to start slow (walking and basic bodyweight exercises), eat a healthy diet, and work from there. Try to get your body able to walk an hour without stopping.
If you’re able to walk a few miles continuously without stopping, you can start adding in some intermittent jogging. You can start slow (30 seconds of jogging, followed by a couple minutes of walking) and work your way up if you haven’t exercised this intensely in awhile.
Otherwise, if you’re in decent shape (or once you can jog continuously for at least 10 minutes) but haven’t played competitive sports or had to sprint at all for awhile, then start with some faster jogging intervals (maybe go 70-80%) for 15-20 seconds at a time, with a minute rest, and repeat 8-10 times. Each time you do this workout, raise the intensity by a bit (maybe 5% or so) until you can hit an all out sprint for 8-10 seconds.
Hill sprints are another great way to work your way up to all out sprints. Hill sprints allow you to simulate the intensity of an all out sprint without as much of an injury risk, since gravity helps slow you down and dampen the impact on your joints and muscles.
The benefits of sprints
While efficiently burning excess body fat is a great benefit on its own, sprinting provides numerous other benefits too. These give you that much more of a reason to integrate them into your routine.
Sprinting enhances your overall athleticism. If you are active or have any hobbies that require some level of athleticism (which is fun if you like to compete), regular sprinting will improve your speed, explosiveness, reaction speed, core strength, anaerobic fitness, and coordination. Sports and active hobbies are always more fun when you are fast and explosive.
Additionally, sprinting works anaerobic endurance, a.k.a. the ability to exert yourself, recover quickly, then exert yourself again. Many sports require this ability (basketball, soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, etc…), and practicing your recovery will improve your performance in these anaerobic sports.
Because of the intensity of sprinting, you will develop your leg strength as well. In fact, you could replace a leg workout day with a sprint day. Hill sprints are an even better way to replace a leg workout, as you get a little more resistance from gravity.
Sprinting also burns calories in less time than other forms of cardio. In fact, you can burn up to 200 calories with only 2.5 minutes of sprinting, whereas jogging burns 10-16 calories per minute. This means you’d have to jog 15-20 minutes to burn the same amount of calories as sprinting for 2.5 minutes. Sure the sprinting is harder, but you no longer have an excuse of “I don’t have enough time.” This helps answer “do sprints burn fat?”
An underrated benefit of sprinting – you don’t need much space or a gym membership. If you can find 30 yards of free space in your yard or a park, you’re good to go.
How to add sprints to your routine
In terms of the sprint workout itself, this part is straightforward. Find some green space with 20-40 yards of room – a sports field or track work best (when people are not using them, ideally). Mark off the distance you’d like to sprint, then go.
You can even use a jogging start and ramp into a sprint if you don’t want to start from a standstill. You likely don’t need to go any further than 40 yards. Finish the sprint by slowly decelerating, then walk back to the start. If you need additional time to catch your breath, take it. The key is to maximize intensity with each sprint, not to tax your lungs.
As far as programming, let’s say you currently train 2-4 days per week. Adding one day of sprints will not disrupt your current routine, and the time commitment won’t put a dent in your schedule either. Just try to not schedule a leg day or another cardio day directly before or after a sprint day.
Your new weekly split could look something like:
- Monday – Legs
- Tuesday – Upper body
- Wednesday – off
- Thursday – Sprints
- Friday – Upper body
- Saturday – Slower cardio
- Sunday – off
If you currently workout 5-6 days a week, you may find it difficult (and counterproductive) to add an additional workout to your weekly split. I would suggest replacing either a leg day or slow cardio day with sprints. This will depend on your personal preferences and goals.
Another alternative is to split a leg day into a quick sprint session (6-8 sprints), followed by a slightly shorter leg workout. It’s ok to lift legs after sprinting, as you will go from a dynamic movement to a more static movement. Make sure to test it out first to see what you can handle.
Conclusion
If you can integrate sprinting into your routine, your overall fitness, athleticism, anaerobic endurance, and physique will improve. So, do sprints burn fat? Well, the answer is yes, provided you follow a weight-loss diet. And the additional benefits of sprinting make adding this exercise to your routine a no-brainer.