Sprint training

Have you noticed the difference in physique between a sprinter and a marathoner?

The body of a marathon runner is shaped to perform a long task, repetitive and low power task. Most of their muscle fibers are Type I (slow twitch muscle fibers). Fibers are smaller, they can make a prolonged effort, and takes long to fatigue.

A sprinter's body is carved to short bursts of high intensity. The muscles are composed of more Type II fibers (fast twitch muscle fibers). Are larger and thicker than the slow, and can generate force quickly.

If the goal is muscle hypertrophy, after an aerobic base is important to exercise your ability to run or swim faster.

A sprint lasts 10 to 15 seconds. At that time, you can not get oxygen to the muscle so it uses the ATP that is already stored. It is short-lived, but is capable of generating the major powers. After that you'll be depending on the speed of blood circulation to transport oxygen to your muscles, your heart beats faster and restores the ATP stores. So the rest interval is so important in sprinting. The rest time should be sufficient to take the next rep at full power again. 2, 3 to 5 minutes may be needed.

Whenever possible, train explosively, and use the intervals. Your body will be at a state of EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen comsuption) that increases your metabolism after exercise and helps burn more calories even sleeping!

- Run / sprint: On a straight track, shoot out from scratch and accelerate to reach full speed. Keep running until you feel that you are not producing much more power. Slow down gracefully, stop and rest. Do not need to run 100 meters. It can be 40, 50 or 60 meter's sprints. Practice full speed is what matters. Do more sprints until you notice a drop in performance.



- Swimming: Try lowering your time in the 25 or 50 meters. Rest swimming slowly for 50 to 100 meters. Take more sprints until you notice a drop in performance.


After sprint training, it is common for people to want to "burn" a few more calories jogging a little bit or some more swimming. There is no need! The training is fast, do not worry. You will see that the time spent on exercise is lower, from 25 to 35 minutes. Way to go!

Snatch, a power exercise

Snatch is one of the Olympic lifts, it is the best exercise for power.

If you can already deadlift and overhead squat, the next step is to get the weight off the floor and take it over the head in one fluid motion combining strength and explosion.

Strength + Speed = Power.

Of all olympic athletes, weightlifters are the ones that have the highest vertical jump, that means, they are the strongest.

Before "take out" a certain weight, you need to train additional movements before. So let's unravel the snatch in separate moves from end to beginning. This is the order I use to warmup:

- Overhead Squat: This is the basic exercise of snatch. Train always. If you do not have a squat rack, here's a video showing how to take the bar from the floor to overhead with security. It also shows how to abort the lift in case you lose the balance:

- Snatch Balance: Test the weight you can handle.

- Hang Snatch: To train your pull and speed of transition. Fine tuning of motor recruitment.

- Snatch: Is the Olympic movement itself. Legs, hips, abdomen, trapezius, shoulder and arms are the main muscles recruited. Easier said that recruits the entire body! Sprinters use snatch to run faster, increasing the blast power. If you want to jump higher or improve your performance in other sports, practice the snatch.


Women also:

Blasting speed:

Anyone can do:

Biomechanical analysis of the snatch: