[quote]bartop wrote:
[quote]Chris87 wrote:
When you guys are sprinting, are you running at your full all out top speed? Or do you leave a little bit in the tank? As in, running fast but relaxed?[/quote]
I have posted about this on a few other threads this week. Lots of people have been talking about sprints lately. I’ll wade into it one more time. I was hitting hill sprints hard twice a week for about 6 months putting everything I had into each effort, and starting in a sprinter’s stance. I was bad ass. Then I tore a calf last May. A torn calf will put an end to any of your lifts that require you to stand up or push off for 8 weeks or so, longer if it is a bad tear. It sucked. After about two months, I started back sprinting, but I stopped using the sprinter’s stance and dialed back the effort to about 95%. I found a longer hill, start out with a slow run for about 20 or so yards, and then increase speed gradually until I am in a full sprint at just below a max effort. So far so good. I believe that is called “starting on the fly”.
I believe that if you have your body moving, you can hit a max effort with less risk because you have some momentum behind you and you aren’t exploding from a dead start, but to be safe, I still don’t quite go all out anymore. I also warm up with rope skips, barbell calf raises, and front squats, run a quarter mile to my hill before I start the sprints, and do some stretching before during and after.
I don’t feel a difference in the leg pump, lung burn, or soreness between the balls-out effort and the 95% effort. Heart rate stays high for about the same time after each sprint. I don’t think that the average lifter looking for conditioning will get enough benefit out of a 100% effort to take the risk when 95% efforts produce nearly the same effect. If you are a competitive sprinter looking to shave off seconds from your time, I guess it is worth the risk. For an old guy like me (51), it is more important to stay uninjured.
It bears repeating - a two month layoff from squats, deads, presses, and cleans really sucks.
My 2 cents.[/quote]
I’ve noticed the same thing, as far as my speed at 100% and 90% being about the same. I play rugby, so my goal with sprinting is to improve my conditioning for game time.
I’ve been running them at a pace somewhere between a “sprint” and a “fast run”. Basically as fast as I can run as long as I’m staying relaxed. My sprints are generally around 50-100 meters and I try to get between 10-20 per session, just depending on exactly what I’m doing that day, because I like to mix up distances and such just to keep it interesting.
