Sprints?

[beastmaster79]

I am in a bulking phase but I want to tighten up my legs and ass a bit . if i add 2 short sprinting sessions into my training will that hurt my bulking?


any other thoughts on sprinting?

 

[Warboss Alex]

it will hurt some people and others it won't. add one sprint session a week and see how you go before adding more

 

[SinJester]

I read somewhere that sprints were good for allround muscular strength? Or something along those lines... How much truth is there to this? So it should be too counterproductive to bulking as long as your not making your body do too much, right?

 

[Bible_Belt]

any other thoughts on sprinting?

This is somewhat off-topic, but afoaf just had his first cage fight. He had been running 2 miles a day, but he ran out of gas big-time by the third round. He did end up winning, but only because the other guy ran out of steam even worse. The other fighters he met said they train with sprints instead of distance running.

 

[Slone]

Sprints will work the short-twitch muscle fibers; that is why most sprinters have bulky, muscular legs, whereas marathoners work primarily the long twitch muscle fibers and consequently sport thin, semi-muscular legs.

In addition to sprints, I would focus on squats: classic squats and front squats work all angles of the quads, hams, and glutes. Also, alternate every other week squatting via the Smith Machine to put extra emphasis on the glutes and hams.

Why would you ever squat on the smith machine?

Anyways, sprinting will hurt your bulking in the sense that it will burn calories. There's no such thing as spot reduction so sprinting will cause you to lose fat where your body wants to lose it. Sprinting is a great way to burn some fat, and you probably won't lose much muscle doing it. Basically you're trying to bulk and cut at the same time, and sprinting certainly won't help your bulking but if you don't do too much it shouldn't cause major problems as long as you keep eating and lifting.

 

[Kerpal]

I think sprints are superior to distance running for almost everything, unless you're training to run in a marathon or something like that. They're better for fat loss, they're better for conditioning, and they don't make all your muscle mass wither away.

 

[Master Bates]

*bump*

Do you need to actually sprint to get the benefits of sprinting, or is it basically just short bursts of really intense cardio? Like, will you get the same effects out of biking really hard for 30-60 seconds? And if you don't want to lose muscle, how much of it should you really do per week? Per session?

I'm interested because I like doing cardio in general, and I'd like to take some of this fat off. But I'm also trying to build muscle, not lose it, and doing lots of cardio seems to devour my muscle over the months.

 

[Master Bates]

anyone?

 

[Warboss Alex]

If you want to be a sprinter, sprint.

If you want to do some HIIT, do some. How much you do will depend on you - it's as simple as that. For some guys it will mean muscle loss or CNS burnout. Others can get away with more.

It'll depend on your genes, how big you currently are, how much you do. Doing it excessively will result in muscle loss (if you carry a significant amount).

Add one session a week in place of slow cardio and build from there.

 

[Master Bates]

So how is sprinting different from HIIT then? And how much should you be doing of either per day if you want to minimize muscle loss?

 

[Warboss Alex]

HIIT alternates very high effort with very low effort to maximise metabolic increase etc. Sprints can be used as HIIT, i.e. sprint 100m, then walk back 100m, sprint 100m.. etc It's usually done for 10-20 minutes.

Sprints can be used as a form of HIIT as they are high-effort cardio. So can the bike as you said earlier (but sprints are probably the best as they are a true fullbody effort)

And I told you - some people will be able to sprint 2x a day 7 days a week and be fine, you might fall over at one session per month. Start slow and assess your tolerance

 

[Master Bates]

Thanks. Well it's not so much a matter of being able to handle it as it is a matter of what kind of mass it eats up. I can handle 15-20 minutes of HIIT fairly well. But a couple years ago I did a number of months of too much cardio and I dipped down to a weight that I'm afraid to mention on this forum.

 

[Warboss Alex]

Well it's not so much a matter of being able to handle it as it is a matter of what kind of mass it eats up.

that's what I meant, plus the potential cns hit