Sprinting vs Anaerobic workouts page

[MonkeyGuy]

Hi there,
Mark Sisson says to do sprints every 7-10 days.
I'm wondering if other types of anaerobic workouts can take the place of sprinting.
Anaerobic just means your heart rate up high. Lifting weights is anaerobic. Natural movement workouts can often be anaerobic. My thinking is, if I'm lifting weights a couple times a week and doing a couple of MovNat-type workouts (which often involve sprinting), should I still reserve another day for purely doing sprints?

Cheers,
Kevin

[iniQuity]

I know folks here "substitute" sprinting for other activities such as martial arts, movnat style workouts, etc. However, I would think that if you're not running, you're not running... does that make sense? I have to TRY to get my sprints in because I'm not too motivated to do them. I think sprints work you out in a different way than doing martial arts and other high intensity workouts. Better too for overall fitness I would say.

In my case I work my upper body WAY more than my lower body, so I have to be conscious to do a leg day and a sprint day.

[Abu Reena]

I don't agree with iniQuity. The goal isn't to run, per se, but to subject your heart rate to maximum effort for a brief period of time.

I "sprint" doing burpees, using the heavy bag, jumping onto my plyo jump box (bad idea, by the way, you can get sloppy and slam your foot, like i did!), whatever. I have heavy manila rope I use for undulation purposes, but I haven't found the right combo to get max effort and heart rate out of that yet. It's all good. Have fun with it.

[Karma]

I use HIIT for my sprint days because I'm focusing on raising my vo2 max for Ski Season coming up. HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training. I do a total of 16-20 minutes of work in a 60 minute session. 10 minutes warm up to get the blood flowing and a couple of fast pedaling sets of 10 seconds to give my legs a little "pop" before I really get going. Then I do 4 X 4 minutes (or 5 minutes) of 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest with 4 minutes rest between intervals. finish with 10 minutes of easy pedaling to cool down afterwards. If you do the intervals really all out you are completely spent at the end of the fourth one.

[Lodini]

I play basketball in place of sprinting. I really suck at shooting so the ball always bounces off the rim and I sprint as fast as humanly possible to get it. The goal is that the ball is not allowed to go out of the lines of the court. It's silly, but it helps me sprint while still playing and having fun

[Suki]

I don't agree with iniQuity. The goal isn't to run, per se, but to subject your heart rate to maximum effort for a brief period of time.

Agreed. You don't have to sprint. I warm up for weight training with my speed rope at max speed for 60 seconds then recover with a 60 second plank. 5 - 10 of each depending on various factors. My favorite are bike sprints - I teach a spin class that I've basically turned into a sprinting class. I thought people would hate me for it but the class is always full.

[Mog]

I thought the sprinting wasn't about heart rate but about mobilising some particular hormone cascade. I know someone from this forum posted a link this last week to another site that explained why it HIIT was best for weight loss, and it wasn't for cardio reasons. If anyone remembers this link I am talking about, I would love to find it again - I kind of skimmed it and meant to come back to it later.

[Bushrat]

I think Abu Reena is right. Personally, I would go with a complex. If you do it right in less than 7 mins you will feel like throwing up or shooting yourself to put yourself out of your misery. Its based around weightlifting, and it gets harder towards the end, so you start out scornfully thinking its piss easy then regretting your smugness toward the end, provided you use an appropriate weight.

[NutMeg]

I am on board with other things working for sprints. I currently use the elliptical as I nurse a knee injury. I warm up for a bit, depending on when I do it depends on the warm up. Then I do 20 minutes of HIIT, some days I put the display on the track and 'sprint' the straights and actively rest the curves. Other days I do it more tabata style with 20 seconds of effort and 10 sec of rest.

Other things IO like are jumping rope, dumbbell thrusters, body builders or burpees. I do on occasion sprint. Like when we have to do a long run for Squadron PT and it is bugging my knee. I walk for a bit and then sprint, for some reason sprinting isn't as bad as slow running. Other things that incorporate sprinting are playing tag with the kids, running fast to get to the end of the parking lot first, etc. Those usually end up just being a one time thing, but it is still sprinting

[AdrianBryant]

SPrints are very intense!!

beginners may be able to get away with 1-2x every 7-10 days but once you get strong enough to do sets of 100 yard sprints then you will need 7-10 days or more off but yes...

You can of course do other non-sprint activities while you rest & recover from sprints but If you're going to do something like basketball I probably wouldnt play FULL court and only play half court as to give you lower body a rest from intense sprinting