Along with basic jogging, sprinting is also an exercise chosen by many people to improve training efficiency, improve physical health, and help refresh the spirit. Specifically, what is sprinting, and how does it affect our health? Let’s learn more about this sport below!
What is sprinting?
Sprinting is one of the competition events in athletics. Accordingly, the athlete/trainer will have to perform a short-distance run within a limited period (specified by the organizer/coach), ensuring that they must complete the run in the shortest possible time.
In addition to its role as a sport, sprinting is also a commonly used exercise in training programs to increase physical strength and improve the body’s endurance and flexibility.
Sprinting has common events such as the 60m run, 100m run, 200m run, 400m run, and relay race.
The effects of sprinting on human health
Sprinting is widely used in both competition and daily sports activities.
Because this sport has the ability to greatly impact the health of the practitioner:
Improve cardiovascular health
Sprinting has the ability to create great pressure on the heart muscle, forcing the heart to beat faster, and increasing the speed of pumping blood throughout the body. Therefore, when practicing sprinting with regular frequency, blood circulation is also significantly improved, reducing the risk of heart disease. In addition, sprinting also helps improve heart muscle strength, enhancing overall health.
Burn excess calories
Research shows that sprinting has the ability to burn calories much more effectively than some common running exercises. Specifically, when studying a person weighing 72kg, running at a speed of 10km/h will burn about 365 calories in 30 minutes. At the same time, sprinting also helps the practitioner effectively eliminate excess fat, improve body shape, and overcome obesity.
Reduce stress and fatigue
Any sport has the effect of reducing stress and fatigue for the body and sprinting is no exception. This is believed to be because when sprinting, our body will secrete a hormone called Endorphin which has the effect of regulating emotions, and relaxing the mind, thereby helping you eliminate stress and feel more refreshed.
Increase endurance
Along with other sports, sprinting helps increase endurance very effectively. When practicing running, your mind must be focused at the highest level. All strength is focused and concentrated on the legs, muscles, and joints, along with other senses such as the eyes to be able to complete the best run. Thus, if you sprint regularly, not only will your cardiovascular health improve, and excess fat will be burned more effectively, but your endurance will also increase significantly.
Save time
Unlike other regular running exercises, sprinting has a high intensity of movement, the speed of movement must be fast and strong to be able to complete the running part in the shortest amount of time. This also means that you will spend less time practicing but the results are not inferior to any long-term exercise.
Instructions on how to sprint properly
Sprinting requires the practitioner to clearly understand the principles of training to avoid unexpected injuries. Below are instructions on how to sprint properly that you should note:
Preparation steps
Sprinting exercises can be performed anywhere, at any time of the day, especially applied to warm up before swimming, cycling, or before regular exercise. However, as mentioned, sprinting is a high-intensity exercise, so before practicing, you need to make sure that:
- You are healthy enough to do the exercise: To be more certain about this, you need to discuss with doctors and training experts to see if you are healthy enough to participate in sprinting.
- Your current physical condition meets the requirements of the exercise: You must make sure that your physical condition is suitable and can do sprinting. If you do not meet this requirement, you can gradually increase the intensity of the exercise to create conditions for the muscles to adapt to the intensity of the exercise.
- Set up the exercise with the appropriate frequency: Based on your physical health and your wishes, you can calculate and adjust the frequency of exercise to best suit you. However, according to experts, the ideal frequency of sprinting is no more than 3 times/week.
- Get used to muscle aches: When performing sprints, the performer may experience muscle aches. This is completely normal and can be overcome by letting the body “get used to” the intensity of the exercise, and practicing basic exercises before participating in official training.