The weather is getting warmer and more than likely you and countless runners are going from the treadmill to the streets for cardio.

Now instead of going on that 40-minute to an hour jog/run, it might be better to cut that time by 2/3 and focus on your intensity. Forcing your body to go through a jogging gait motion with low intensity does not prepare the body to absorb the impact of foot strikes and does not position muscles like the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes to fire off properly.

There are many benefits to prevent those scenarios from happening when you shift from those elongated jogs to short burst sprints. The effect of a few rounds of short burst sprints can lead to a higher heart rate, improved performance, & higher VO2 max intake levels. A 2009 15-week study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that participants who performed ten sets of ten seconds of all out spinning performed a lot better on endurance and power tests compared to the continuous aerobic group. Now to those who might think that you might injure yourself further performing sprints, think about this: you perform less strides which lowers the impact from your training session. That means if you have a muscular imbalance, you are less likely to enter that injury cycle from your running.

As you progress with your cardiovascular levels make sure you perform self-checks every few weeks to gauge your progress. Try to scale your runs based on difficulty, distance covered, and recovery time between sprints just to name a few. Add in a few body weight movements and dynamic stretching and you have an outdoor program that can accommodates your overall blueprint to a better, faster, stronger self.

Better your running results and strengthen your legs.  Contact James today!