Hey guys! I have to spend the next 6 weeks doing shoulder rehab, and i just read a article on t nation about doing sprints everyday. Link: The 6-Week Sprinting Solution
Basicly its doing 6 sprints a day 6 days a week for 6 weeks. Is this too much? Anybody tried something like this?
Sprinting can be taxing on the shoulder joint.
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I did that program a couple years ago. Just thought it looked fun (it doesn’t sound fun to me anymore) so I wanted to try it.
Used a treadmill (which I believe the author recommends), since it was winter and the local track was covered in a few feet of snow. I set the incline as high as it could go.
It was definitely tough, like, in the moment, but after taking 5 minutes to just walk slowly afterwards I felt fine. I was 16 at the time, not really that fat, and also in between seasons of XC and track, so running was a big part of my life at the time. I think you’ll get in slightly better shape if you stick with it but don’t expect crazy fat loss unless your diet is good too.
And yeah, sprinting can be rough on the shoulder joint. I had shoulder surgery at the end of May and just spent the rehab time doing GHR’s, hip thrusts, back extensions and situps basically. I didn’t really do them as often as I should’ve but once or twice a week. I was lazy. However, this approach may work better. You can focus on those often neglected muscles for a while, and if you are a runner (are you?) your running will have improved due to having a stronger posterior chain when you get back to it.
No i don’t really run i just enjoy sprinting, but i mainly lift.
OK.
Really I’d recommend holding off on the sprinting I think. In my opinion, shoulders are the trickiest to work around and you’re not going to want to do anything to risk irritating it until its fully healed.
Do strength movements that don’t work it - the posterior chain movements I said, single leg work (probably high reps since you may not be able to hold onto much weight), ab work, and upper body work on the side that isn’t hurt.
If you have a sled or access to it, you can put a belt/harness around your waist and pull it in various ways. I’d walk. That’s the closest I can think of to “conditioning” type stuff that won’t hurt.
Just my two cents. Do what works for you, but be careful. I think I rushed into my old activites and now almost 5 months post surgery I’m experiencing much more pain than I believe I should be.
I feel like the program title is a bit misleading. I think of sprinting as an all out, max effort activity. Like, 40 yard sprints. This program is more like “fast running” for up to 20s, which would be like a 160 yard “sprint”. Also, on treadmills you can’t really sprint, just run fast.
I have incorporated lots of sprinting into my workouts. I think hill sprints are the absolute best, but if you don’t have that, I like to do the following:
3 warm ups of 50 yards each, progressively faster
5 x 50 yard sprints. Maybe at 90-95% max effort. Rest as long as needed between them.
6x100 yard “fast runs”. This is done by doing laps, with slow jogs around the bends and fast runs once you hit the beginning of the football field.