Run!

Up to now, I have suggested a combination of aerobic and anaerobic training as the ultimate method of transforming your body. There is however an activity that combines both: sprinting.

We are designed by nature to move either slowly for a long time, or very fast for a short time. With the morning runs, we have covered the former requirement. Sprinting will take care of the latter. It truly is an exercise of tremendous benefits. It will improve your endurance and your strength. It will completely alter your body in no time.

To safely graduate to sprinting, you must have at least a month of regular aerobic exercise under your belt. When you are ready, do it like this:

If you have followed my advice, you are doing three aerobic and three weight sessions per week. In that case, one sprinting session per week is sufficient.

I suggest you do it on Saturday or Sunday, so as to be able to go somewhere in nature. There are two reasons for this: first, you can consider it to be a small excursion, and second, you are going to need a soft soil, because I recommend you run… barefoot.

Yes, you read that right. The benefits are multiplied if you don’t wear shoes (or at least if they have minimum sole). This is a vast subject, and I promise we will discuss it in the future.

Sprinting means to “run as fast as you can” and that’s exactly what you should do, after a proper warm-up of course. If you indeed run as fast as you can, then you won’t last for more than 15 seconds. Rest a bit by walking, and then repeat 5-6 times.

You can also alternate sprinting with running (interval training), but this is something that I will also leave for another time!