I’ve seen a statistic thrown around on the web that 95% of adults over the age of 30 won’t ever sprint again for the remaining of their lives. 

While these numbers are probably made up, they do capture something that I’ve noticed anecdotally: there aren’t many adults on the market sprinting. Heck, if I take a look at my very own life in the course of the past decade, I haven’t done much all-out sprinting myself. 

Sure, I’ve done HIIT work on an assault bike, burpees, and body weight exercises to get my heart rate up for conditioning, but bouts of running as fast as I can have been few and much between. I’ve sprinted in some ultimate frisbee games or while playing flag football with the boys I coach, but that’s about it.

The last time I did wind sprints as a part of a workout was way back in 2016. It had been the primary time in years I had run full speed for greater than 40 yards. The result? I gave myself terrible tendonitis in my right hamstring that prevented me from squatting and deadlifting for a few month and made sitting down somewhat uncomfortable. It still bothers me now, seven years later. 

After reading that statistic about how few adults sprint after age 30, I felt inspired to determine a method to take up sprinting again without injuring myself. I would like to be an old codger who can still sprint at full speed at age 75 (even when full speed at age 75 can be as fast as my slow jog is now). 

Why? 

First, I do enjoy playing sports that require sprinting. Ultimate frisbee, flag football, and basketball are some games I play where you sprint. I would like to have the option to proceed to play these games with my kids and even my grandkids. 

Second, sprinting is considered one of those physical skills that might save my life in the future. I would like to have the option to run as fast as possible when my life is dependent upon it without worrying I’ll blow my knees out. 

Finally, sprinting is an awesome workout. You’ll be able to do it anywhere, and it’s great for anaerobic conditioning. Sprinting can even strengthen lower leg muscles and tendons, enhancing your durability. 

To assist me get back into sprinting without injuring myself, I talked to Matt Tometz, Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at Northwestern University. 

Here’s your guide to sprinting as a grown-up. 

Why You Get Injured When You Sprint

In the event you’ve tried sprinting as an adult after an extended hiatus away from it, you might have experienced an injury like I did. While you would possibly think it’s due primarily to age, injuries from sprinting occur continuously, even amongst elite athletes. 

Sprinting is a high-impact, high-strain activity. You’re contracting your leg muscles repeatedly with plenty of force in the course of the sprint. If the muscles and tendons in your legs haven’t been strengthened to handle those forceful, repeated contractions, you’re setting yourself up for a muscle strain or tendon injury. 

“Consider a sprint as a one-rep max on a deadlift,” Matt told me. “You wouldn’t try deadlifting 405 kilos unless you progressively trained your method to lift that much. You’d just injure yourself if you happen to tried deadlifting 405 kilos without training. The identical thing goes with sprinting.”

Preparing Your Body for Sprinting 

So, how will we prep our bodies for full-on sprints? 

Matt recommends doing a warm-up before your workout that features each plyometrics and reduced-intensity sprints:

Plyometrics. Matt likes to have his athletes do ankle jumps as a part of their warm-up. “Jumping and doing plyos might help strengthen and prepare your hamstring muscles and tendons to cope with the acute force and tension that’s going to occur while you sprint,” he says.

Matt recommends doing the next plyo exercise: Stand in place along with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your knees straight, jump off the bottom. As your feet come off the bottom, flex your ankles and pull your toes up as high as possible. Extend your ankles shortly before you come back to the ground and push the balls of your feet into the bottom explosively. Jump again immediately. 

“Do ten reps for a set of two. The goal is to be bouncy and explosive,” Matt said. 

Besides ankle jumps, other plyometric exercises you would do to arrange for sprinting include power skipping, alternate leg bounding, and lateral jumps. Do two sets of every exercise. Keep things bouncy. 

Reduced-intensity sprints. Before any sprint session, it’s best to not only do plyos but some warm-up sprints as well. The intensity of your warm-up sprints must be 10% lower than the sprints you’ll be doing in your major workout. So if you happen to’ll be doing the sprints in your major workout at 95% intensity, you’ll wish to do your warm-up sprints at about 85% intensity. 

Do 2-3 warm-up sprints at that 10%-less effort. The goal with warm-up sprints is to practice the movement of sprinting.

Working Your Way As much as an All-Out Sprint Without Injuring Yourself

For people who haven’t sprinted in an extended time, Matt recommends starting with longer distances but keeping the intensity low. Week by week, you’ll shorten the gap and ramp up the intensity. 

For every week’s workout, start with 2-3 lighter-intensity warm-up sprints and two 10-rep sets of plyos. 

Then perform 3-4 sprints, at the next distances, with 2 minutes of rest between them:

• Week 1: 50-yard sprints at 80% intensity [Matt notes that this “shouldn’t feel like a sprint, but more like a really fast jog . . . . You should feel like you had plenty left in the tank.”]
• Week 2: 40-yard sprints at 85% intensity
• Week 3: 30-yard sprints at 90% intensity
• Week 4: 20-yard sprints at 95% intensity
• Week 5: 10-yard sprints at 100% intensity

Bam. You’ve worked your way as much as a full sprint without injuring yourself. 

After this on-ramping sequence, Matt recommends slowly adding distance to your sprint workouts while maintaining high intensity. 

For every week’s workout, start with 2-3 warm-up sprints at 85% intensity and two 10-rep sets of plyos. 

Then perform 3-4 sprints at 95-97% intensity with 2 minutes of rest between them:

• Week 1: 10-yard sprints 
• Week 2: 20-yard sprints 
• Week 3: 30-yard sprints 
• Week 4: 40-yard sprints

You shouldn’t feel destroyed after every sprint session; it’s best to feel such as you’ve left some within the tank while you’re done.

As you may see, this program takes time so as to add distance. Slow and regular is the important thing if you would like to add sprinting into your workout routine without getting injured. 

Keep It Loose

There’s so much we could get into when it comes to proper technique for sprinting, but for the typical dude, Matt’s biggest suggestion is to maintain things loose and simple while you’re sprinting: “Loads of people think they have to be really tight and have their neck muscles all strained while they’re sprinting. But if you happen to take a look at elite athletes, they appear really relaxed after they’re sprinting. Do the identical. Concentrate on staying relaxed, and it would help keep your form fluid and smooth, which can help with speed and reduce your possibilities of injuring yourself.”

As a assist in staying relaxed, considered one of the best sprinting coaches of all time, Bud Winter, would impress upon his athletes two big cues: “loose jaw — loose hands.” Winter thought that relaxing your hands and jaw (even the lips and tongue) “tends to maintain your entire body relaxed.” So attempt to sprint with what he called the “brook trout look.” 

When to Do Your Sprint Workouts

Sprinting might be incorporated into your strength-training workouts.

Matt likes to consolidate stress in his athletes so that they have loads of time to get well. Since sprinting will primarily stress your lower body, you’ll wish to do them on the times you do your lower-body strength training to consolidate your lower-body stress in a single workout. 

Since Matt’s focus is on helping his athletes get faster, he likes to have them do their sprint work before strength training. “I would like my athletes to sprint after they’re feeling the freshest. Also, the sprints might help an athlete feel good and loose before hitting the weights,” he told me.

But as we discussed in our article about whether it’s best to do cardio before weights in a workout or vice versa, doing cardio first does fatigue the muscles, decreasing the quantity of contractual force you’ll have the option to call upon while lifting. So, if strength training is your primary goal, then consider doing all your sprints after your lifting session.

I reckon for many dudes just attempting to stay strong and get some sprinting in, it probably doesn’t matter much in the long term whether you sprint or lift first. Do what you favor.

Experiencing the satisfaction of moving your body as fast as it will probably truck under its own power isn’t something that ought to end in your twenties. Keep feeling after your limits and stay in contact with that explosive “Go!” at all ages.