This is a question that actually comes up quite a bit with my clients. I think for many lifters (both young and old) there is a natural appeal to sprinting as a form of conditioning. I think there is an obvious connotation as sprints being a much more athletic and productive form of conditioning than hitting more “traditional” forms of cardio such as the stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical, etc. Certainly for those of us that have a background in athletics that may have involved lots and lots of sprints as a form of speed training or conditioning – we can look back and see that sprinting went a long way towards elevating our level of fitness, decreasing body fat, and making us look and feel all around more athletic.
But for many of us, as we grow older and drift away from competitive sports, we get away from this type of training and lean much more heavily on just weight training or a combination of weight training and traditional “gym” cardio modalities. But after many years of hitting the iron hard and increasing our strength, there is a natural inclination to want to able to do more than just pick things up and put them down. Harkening back to “the good ole days” of high school football or basketball or whatever we engaged in as youths, we start to think about incorporating those sprint workouts back into our routine.
And then the inevitable questions start to pop up for those of us in our 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond “Can I still do that?” Or maybe more accurate “Should I still do that?”
It’s an appropriate question. Simple observation of most sports show that injuries from high speed activities increase in frequency and severity with age.
Your 40 year old knees, hamstrings, calves, and Achilles tendons aren’t the same as they were at age 18.
HOWEVER…….I don’t think that Sprint Training is necessarily a no-go for guys over 30 and into middle age.
So the short answer to the question in the title of this article is YES, you can run sprints. But you need to do it SMARTLY and with the appropriate precautions.
I’ll go over a few tips here if you are interested in incorporating some sprint training into your weekly routine.
#1: Balance Sprint Training with Lower Body Weight Training
Consider sprints to be a form of high intensity lower body workout – not just a form of cardio. There is a high degree of stress on both the muscles and connective tissues. You need to take that into consideration. If you are already engaged in a high stress weight training program for the lower body, be careful about throwing a bunch of sprints into the mix on top of everything else. Sprints + Smolov isn’t going to work!!! For most people I’d recommend a total of about 3 high stress lower body sessions per week to start with. So perhaps that is 2 weight training sessions (squats and deadlifts) and 1 sprint workout. Or perhaps 1 weight training session per week and 2 sprint workouts. If you want to do more, ease into that level of frequency and know your limits and tolerances. At most I’d say 4 sessions per week (ex: 2 weight training sessions and 2 sprint workouts) is going to be sustainable over the long term. As far as how much volume per session, how much intensity, etc…..that’s going to be a trial and error process that will differ for everyone. Start conservative and increase over time as you need and can recover from. If possible, spread out your sprint training and heavy lower body strength training across the week with rest days in between if possible. If you currently Squat on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, don’t expect to be able to add in sprints on Tuesday and Thursday without recovery issues! Below are a couple of sample training splits that can work:
- Monday – Upper Body Training AM + Sprints PM
- Tuesday – Off
- Wednesday – Lower Body Training
- Thursday – Off
- Friday – Upper Body Training
- Saturday – Sprint Training
- Sunday – Off
OR
- Monday – Upper Body Training AM + Sprints PM
- Tuesday – Off
- Wednesday – Lower Body Training
- Thursday – Off
- Friday – Upper Body Training AM + Sprints PM
- Saturday – Lower Body Training
- Sunday – Off
#2: Ease into Volume & Distance
Just like when you started lifting – start conservatively. Don’t push the number of sprints you do or the distances you run right off the bat. Start with a moderate number of short distance sprints and increase the number of sprints you do and/or the distance over time. A reasonable starting place is something like 5 sprints at 40-50 yds, 1-2 times per week. Increase volume slowly over time as your body tolerates.
#3: WARM UP!!!!!!
Don’t be an idiot and go out to the track or football field and go right into high speed sprints!! You wouldn’t do this anymore than you’d walk into the gym and load up 405 and start squatting without first hitting sets with 45 lbs, 135 lbs, 225 lbs, etc, etc. Start with some basic dynamic stretches / warm ups. Youtube is your friend. Plenty of resources out there with demos for this sort of thing. Spend 10-15 minutes doing 10-20 yards of straight leg marches / russian kicks, high knees, butt kicks, etc. These are all simple drills you did in Junior High and High School. They get blood flow into the muscles, and get a good stretch and warm up for the hamstrings, adductors, quads, and calves. Do mostly dynamic stretching but also spend a couple minutes with some static stretches of the hip flexors and calves. Once the dynamic warm up is done (10-15 minutes tops) then perform a couple of warm up “sprints” at about 40-50% speed. These aren’t part of your “work sets” they are to prepare you for the higher effort sprints to come. So if the plan is 5 x 50 yds, do 2 x 50 yds at about half speed to finish off the warm up and then move into the 5 “work sets.”
#4: NEVER Run 100% Full Speed Sprints
I usually don’t use the word “never”. But really guys – after 30 there really isn’t a need to go 100% all out effort on sprints. Going about 80% of your top end speed will get you all the benefits of going at 100%. It’s a simple risk-reward analysis. Risk goes up substantially when trying to push a maximum speed, and there really isn’t a higher yield on your investment of time and energy. If you don’t know what 80% of top end speed is…….well……there really isn’t a good way to measure this except “going by feel.” It’s going to be pretty damn fast. Much faster than a jog, but there should be an intuitive sense that you have 1 more gear to turn on if you really wanted to. But don’t. Torn hamstrings and Achilles tendons aren’t worth it.
#5: Use Flying Starts to Get Going
I don’t advise starting from a Dead Stop off the starting line like a track athlete. Again, a lot of tweaks and strains can come in the first couple of steps when you are trying to go from 0 to 100. Instead, start about 10 yards behind the actual starting line. Initiate a jog and lightly accelerate as you approach the starting line and THEN hit your highest gear (which is 80% not 100%- remember?)
#6: Allow Plenty of Room to Decelerate
Especially if you are heavier…..don’t try and slow down too fast after you cross the finish line. Dragsters don’t slam on the brakes as soon as they hit the quarter mile finish line and neither should you. Give yourself a good 10-20 yds or so to slowly decelerate and come to a complete stop. Deceleration of a heavy load is a high stress activity on the connective tissue and you want to Slowly Slow Down. Trying to go from top speed to a dead stop in a very short length of track is another way to come up lame.
Follow these 6 recommendations and you’ll be on your way to better fitness, safely and injury free. Happy Sprinting, Friends.
