Have you seen that movie “Run Fat Boy, Run”?  It is actually a pretty inspiring movie and very funny.

Make your running rock your body.

As many of you know, my wife and I just got back from a triathlon.  Nothing heavy, but a good little workout, that keeps life and health in perspective.  Now, for those of you who are running or training for other sports with endurance this will help you.

This is a modification of our high-intensity workouts, but for running.  If you exercise long enough you will eventually feel that heavy, non-responsive feeling in your legs.  You may even call it the “wall”.  For those of you that want a good running movie check out “Run fat boy, Run.  Funny “wall” scene.

It is a vague barrier that is known as your lactic acid threshold.  As you use your muscles you create lactic acid.  Normally if the activity is low enough the lactic acid is recycled back into more energy for you, but when you work harder than your body can recycle it, it builds up.

New research suggests the lactic acid build up actually helps you combat fatigue.  The fatigue comes from other chemicals, and even you nervous system to help protect the body.  But, like weight lifting, your body can learn to improve and adapt.  If you want to improve your endurance and performance you need to improve your lactic acid threshold.  And sprinting will do that.

Just like our weight lifting at high intensity, sprinting is the running way to go high intensity.  Plus, I like it, because it doesn’t take time like regular tempo running.

So if you are looking for a little more fat loss add this to your routine every once in awhile.

Researchers tested two groups of runners for fat loss and metabolism.  The regular running group (aerobic) burned 48 percent more calories than our Sprint interval group (H.I.T-High-Intensity-Training group).  Despite that huge calorie difference the H.I.T group had 9x greater subcutaneous fat loss.

Wow!

H.I.T. training doesn’t burn lots of calories while exercising but really shines by turning on enzymes that burn fat long after you are done working out.

On your treadmill use the interval settings.
As you get stronger or faster, just sprint longer or harder and start adding some incline.  But, when you are sprinting, SPRINT, don’t do it half-way.  Focus and move those legs as fast as you can without going out of control.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.