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Coaches should practice what they preach. So let us talk about my weekly sprint interval session.
Welcome to another fact-based coaching article from Strength by Fitness.
So, what’s cooking and brewing behind the scenes of a weekly sprint-interval session?
The exact answer to that will depend on the context of why you are exercising.
Is that weekly sprint interval but one exercise tool in a larger health & fitness plan? That’s amazing if it is. But, in that case, you are like me. And this means that the actual sprint performance is not the be-all, end-all of your fitness week or your fitness progression.
You are simply including a minor fitness volume per week that’s tailored toward sprints, and sprint performance because it provides unique health & fitness benefits that are good for your overall progression and capacity.
But it’s not the priority of your fitness plan or your progression, nor can it be allowed to take too much room in your capacity for recovery.
If, on the other hand, you are a pro athlete for whom your sprint performance is your livelihood, well, then the priority and execution of your sprint sessions will be a little bit different.
Context matters.
Is that weekly sprint-interval just one exercise tool in a larger health & fitness plan, or your main priority?
Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness.
That prephase matters. So keep it in mind.
Context always matters, for sports, strength training, walking, hiking, running, jogging, and biking. Context always matters for all forms of exercise and programing.
Why do you exercise? What´s your goal in general with your fitness and health plan. What do you want your food to achieve and provide for your health, your fitness progression, and performance, how do you sleep? And why do these things look like they do.
As a coach, I can ask a lot of questions, as should all coaches do. Because this is how we can leverage our AI beating knowledge, and expertise when we design, and adapt your ongoing food, health, and fitness plan according to your goals, needs, and progression.
Equally important is that nothing you do actually have to be perfect, or happen in one specific way for it to be incredibly beneficial, and good for you.
Good fact-based coaching always have some basic pillars that applies.
Good, fact-and-experience-based coaching has some basic pillars that always apply. And the same thing goes for nutrition, sleep & recovery. Sure, there is individual nuance, & preference in play, but there will always be a massive shared fact-based foundation between habits & outcomes.
It is oh-so-popular to bash science, but scientific facts are always in play. Food, fitness, our health, and the way we sleep, and recover, are all about our habits, and the fact-based outcome that those habits put together will express themselves as.
So not all sprint-intervas have to be exactly the same. The individual context and goals of who you are matter. While at the same no one can overlook the fact-based pillars that always apply.
So, let us drill it down.
Sprints are not about you running fast. Sprints are faster than that.
They are very explosive, and intense, short bursts of massive speed & power.
So much so that a properly executed sprint interval is as much strength training as it is an intense cardiovascular session.
A sprint interval is as much strength training as it is an intense cardiovascular session.
Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness
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But each sprint is 1 set. And like with explosive strength training, it’s going to be a short set. A short set with a big effort, during this short set your type 2 muscle fibers and motor units will go to war with explosive power & effort.
Once done, since we are talking about exercise and the purpose of improving and becoming better you will create room for lots of rest before the next sprint set.
We rest because this is how you produce more explosive, stronger, “faster” type 2 muscle fibers and motor units. Stimulate, and rest so your body can go again, and deliver at the high-quality level that is needed, once again.
Before some of you explode out of your chairs chanting that people need to do more zone 1 and zone 2 cardio.
Yes, low effort for a high rep set ( duration and volume ) is great, but it is not how you improve explosive top strength and explosive sprints, and not only do humans need all of it, but some people just don’t have a need or interest in becoming what is primary marathon, or ultra runner.
Besides, the purpose of this article is not to debate the merits, and incredible benefits of endurance training ( or strength training for that matter ), this article is simply talking about sprint intervals, the how and why, and as such I am making use of my own weekly sprint interval session, and the fact-based wisdom and expertise that went into the how an why of why my own sprint intervals look the way they do.
Before we dive deep into my personal weekly sprint interval session.
This is my personal context.
A. I strength train 4 days/week.
I work my way up to big loads, and I do explosive lifts but controlled and injury-free. I super set two opposing exercises and always finish each exercise combo with a cluster set which I take to an RIR of 0–3, so reps are still high even with my final cluster set and its big load.
I also do martial arts 2 to 4/week.
This matters because my body already gets plenty of weekly exercise.
To top it all off, I also walk 7x/week for roughly 100 minutes per day. Not mentioned yet is the weekly mountainous hike I enjoy together with my wife. In other words, I already get plenty of cardiovascular benefits and I have a very good cardiovascular engine already. Especially so for my strength level, and amount of lean muscle mass.
So for me, there is neither time nor capacity for recovery to run more than 2 or max 3 days per week. And I don’t have time or recovery room for a 4-hour endurance session in my life. Just a glance at my all-year-round fitness life should tell you that I already spend a lot of hours on exercise and fitness. A typical gym day takes up 6 hours of my day with exercise if I include everything, including my daily walk.
That´s my daily reality, and it has been this way for years, and decades. So to add a 4-hour run or bike ride, that won’t happen for me. Not to mention, that its not just about time, it comes down to health, and fitness goals, the price of recovery, and your capacity for recovery too.
It´s those questions I asked earlier, how do you eat? Why do you train, How do you sleep, rest, et cetera?
The Above image is the cycle for each set during my sprint interval session, and each new set starts with that recovery walk/jog transforming into the subsequent easy jog. This phase is not something which you rush through.
Take your time. Sprinting is like explosive strength training with bigger loads, and this makes your rest and recovery between each set paramount. So, take your time.
In the gym we rest 4 to 7 minutes between big, explosive, lifts, and sprnting is the exact same thing.
So, get your breathing down to non-exhaustive, and understand that your heart rate should be as if nothing´s happened. When you reach this stage, and your lower body muscles feel like another explosive effort will be easier than the last, that´s when you are ready for your next set.
So, for me, every weekly sprint interval session starts with the same walk to my designated sprint track. and this is my non-exhaustive warmup.
Once there, every sprint set starts with an easy non-exhaustive jog.
I do sprints at the same place every time so I have visual markers for where my jog starts, where that jog flows into a sprint, and where the sprint ends and transforms into a jog, and starts over with a walk again that soon becomes a jog ( set 2).
Each jog during each set ends with a 10 to 15-meter phase where I ramp up the speed. And finally, that short run becomes a sprint through 3 to 6 final steps that ramp up speed and power with each step.
I go for the sprint at my visual marker, and it ends 30 meters later at another marker.
Strength Training and Sprints, the shared world of per set effort.
Set 1 is not a 100% effort.
Like with effective strength training, you increase effort ( rir ) and load with each set.
Our bodies are always in charge. Not our pre-set plans and numbers. Our fitness plan is the guide, it´s the fact-based formula we approach each workout, and our progress with, but our bodies are in control of the effort and performance of each workout.
So sometimes this means that I will do two sets in a row with roughly the same level of effort. Because sometimes that’s what your body needs in order to perform.
Each set that you do allows your body to recruit more motor units and type 2 muscle fibers. And each set allows for the same cardiovascular ramp up too.
So for me, sometimes I will do 3 short sprints during my weekly sprint-interval session. It’s what I have been doing for the last 1.5 months.
But this week I had reached a point where it was time to add set 4. Just like with strength training, this provides effortless progression and despite an increase in my sprint volume this past week, I got to enjoy an easier recovery than it had been in previous weeks.
I felt faster, fitter, stronger, and more durable, and I recovered faster and easier too, in gym and on the track.
Talk about good progression in the gym and track.
But this is what happens when you pay attention to all aspects of your journey. The exercise, the nutrition, the sleep, and rest.
You see, fitness performance walks hand in hand with the price of recovery it creates, which will clash with your capacity for recovery.
Which in turn has to do with how fit you are. How well you eat, sleep, and rest.
That price of recovery comes down to how you train, volume, frequency, load, effort, and intensity. So what might look like genetics to some, or haphazard magic, and “it’s just life” is all about adherence to fact-based habits.
SPC works.
More nutrients per unit of energy absolutely destroys high-energy foods with fewer nutrients per unit of energy. Especially so when the main macro pillar becomes protein.
Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness
As such, I do 1 sprint interval per week, and I do 1 run interval. And if I feel really good I sometimes add a third jog/run session.
Because this is the volume that fits into my healthy fitness life and running is a beneficial tool for health & fitness. It helps any and everyone.
But it’s not the main priority for me, and it doesn’t have to be anyone’s main priority in their healthy fit lifestyle. Something beats nothing by an enormous margin, as I like to say.
Especially so when you already exercise as much as I do. Because everything adds up. 1 weekly sprint interval adds capacity, and performance that go hand in hand with my strength training, and martial arts, while also providing additional health benefits. And my weekly hike, daily walks and longer, slower run all add to my cardiovascular health & endurance.
It’s all about adherence to habits.
So sprint hard, when you sprint, just accept the need for recovery between each set, and session. Sprinting is like strength training in this regard.
This is why I walk and jog between each short sprint. Mirroring the same way, I rest for 4 to 7 minutes between my strength training sets.
Everything has a fact-based purpose.
As such, my weekly run intervals are longer. And also less exhausting. But both are needed and beneficial. Providing overlapping but different fitness adaptations, health, and performance benefits.
Finally.
Exercise, no matter what you do. Is not a 4 week game. Forget the get fit in 16-weeks fairy tale.
Run, jog, lift weights, bike, do martial arts, play sports.
In all cases, exceptional fitness, and health comes from weekly repetition across many years and decades.
So, don’t stress, don’t rush.
Take it easy, do it step by step. Build your habits, do not demand perfection or go bust from yourself or others.
Slow and steady progression wins the health and fitness race. Slow, and steady, however, does not equal not pushing your effort on a weekly basis.
It just means that it takes time.
So be patient. Let your body decide the level it can manage at each session and week.
But build that weekly habit. And never stop. Habits rule supreme over genetics and circumstance.
So be patient & keep on trucking. Ask for good coach help, it really helps, with both results & adherence.
Exercise, Is not a 4 week game. Forget the get fit in 16-week fairy tale. It´s years & decades of adherence.
Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness
Strength By Fitness articles for protein, fitness, and health outcomes.
1. Fat loss with or without exercise and protein impact.
Fat loss with or without exercise. The health and muscle mass outcome. | Strength By Fitness
2. RDA protein intake versus 1.6, outcomes when lifting weights.
Let us compare RDA protein Intake vs 1.6g/day and kilo of bodyweight. | Strength By Fitness
3. Obesity and nutritional deficits. Low SPC foods are the cause of this.
Our world suffers both obesity & nutritional deficits. | Strength By Fitness
You can also read this article over at Medium if you are a paying Medium Member.
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