What is Sprinting? 5 Best Sprint Workouts For Beginners

Sprint workouts are an excellent way to build power, speed and explosiveness. Sprinting workouts can be done anywhere and require no equipment, making them great for beginners looking to get started on their fitness journey.

The following sprint regimen can help you build up your conditioning as well as improve your speed.

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What is Sprinting?

Sprinting is a form of running that requires explosive strength and speed. It's a sport that can help you lose weight and build muscle, but it's also an amazing cardiovascular workout.

Sprinting is characterised by a quick acceleration, high top speed, short duration (compared to other forms of running) and rapid deceleration. Sprinting requires specific qualities that are unique to this form of exercise: power, quickness, agility, dexterity, balance and coordination.

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Best Sprint Workouts for Beginners

Here's a look at the five best sprint workouts for beginners:

#1 Hill Sprint

Hill sprints are a great way to build power, speed and explosiveness. They're also a great way to build stamina as you'll be running fast for a short period of time.

You can do hill sprints on the treadmill or outside, but be warned: hill sprints can be tough. If you choose to do them outside, make sure there's no traffic or other people around. You don’t want anyone getting hurt by being in your way when you are running fast.

The best thing about hill sprints is that they work every single muscle group in your legs, providing an excellent workout for your entire body.

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#2 Track Sprint

Track sprints are one of the most effective ways to build speed and power, as you can do them anywhere. There are three types of track sprint workouts:

• Standing start 50m sprints
• Flying 30m sprints (also known as triple jumps)
• Standing start 200m sprints.

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#3 Long Jump

Long jumps are a popular sport in the Olympics, and they're great exercises for building speed and explosive power. They're also fun.

The key to long jumping is to maximise your stride length by pushing off from the ground as hard and far behind you as possible. If you've ever watched an Olympic long jumper, you know that a huge part of their success comes from how far back they lean before their first stride.

Once you've mastered this technique, try increasing your speed by doing quick sprints between each jump. This exercise can improve your acceleration and overall speed over 30 yards or metres (it's helpful to use cones around the track so that you can measure distances).

The muscles used in long jump includes: quadriceps (front thigh), hamstrings (back thigh), gluteus maximus (buttocks), gastrocnemius and soleus calves (calf muscles), rectus abdominis abs (abdominal muscles), erector spinae back extensors, trapezius between shoulder blades, serratus and anterior arm.

For these muscles to work efficiently during a long jump, there needs to be good posture. Moreover, your shoulders should be rounded, with the back neutral or arched, chest out and belly tight. Improve upon yourself by focusing on one aspect at a time, working up from short distance jumps all the way till 50+ metre dashes or sprints.

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#4 Stair Sprint

Stair sprints are great for building speed and strength, particularly in your lower body. While sprinting up stairs can be an intimidating workout initially, it's a very effective form of exercise you can easily incorporate into your daily routine at home or at the office.

Here's how to do stair sprints safely:

• Warm up by walking up and down the stairs for five minutes before jumping into any type of intense exercise.
• Try not to run on your toes. That'll put too much pressure on your joints and can lead to pain or injury over time.
• Keep your heels low while running up the steps as fast as possible without sacrificing form (elevate feet slightly so that your knees don't go over toes). That'll help with injury prevention as well!
• Rest between sets; otherwise fatigue will set in quickly, which may lead to poor technique down the line.

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#5 Short Jump

Sprinting up stairs is a great way to build power and explosiveness. It's also a great way to improve your agility and footwork. You can do this workout at home or at the gym.

Short jumps are explosive and clinical, as you can work out in short bursts and burn an immense amount of calories in a short period of time.

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Takeaway

Sprint workouts are an excellent way to build power, speed and explosiveness. They’re also a lot of fun.

If you’ve never sprinted before, start with some short runs on flat ground. You should be able to run at least 20 metres without stopping by the end of the aforementioned workouts.

If not, try doing shorter distances till your body is ready for more exertion. As always, with any new exercise routine or training plan, consult your doctor before starting any physical activity programme.