Sprints versus endurance jogging

[sundizz]

I am trying to live long, look good, and feel good. Lately, I've been reading a lot about how endurance exercising is not good (and possibly bad) for your overall health. I don't want to be jacked, but also don't want to have that skinny fat look some people that jog a lot have.

Key points:
-Lose 60% fat and 40% muscle when endurance training
-Your body's composition (look) doesn't change for the better. A big pear shaped person just becomes a smaller pear shaped person because they are losing so much muscle.
-The famished feeling cause you to eat more.
-As you get older you lose more and more muscle (which is bad).
-A low calorie diet generally cause people to live longer and healthier lives.
-intense training increase VO2 max much better. The heartrate spike from intense short burst training is much better for you.

These are not all haterade comments on long distance running. However, they are all directly or indirectly related to endurance training of any sorts.

I've spent the last 30 days getting into "training" shape by jogging. I think now I am going to switch it up to this:

M: Pullups, pushups, situps

T: Sprint training. 8 X 40 meters or so, with 2-4 minutes of rest in between each sprint.

W: Pullups, pushups, situps

Th:: Sprint training. 8 X 40 meters or so, with 2-4 minutes of rest in between each sprint.

F: Rest

Sat/Sun: ~3 hours of hoops each day

Any advice? No diet advice. Any personal success stories?

[IamRAMBO24]

Mix it up. Say you run 4 miles and at the end of each mile you spent 30 seconds sprinting and then resume your normal pace, you are actually burning 50% more calories than pacing yourself.

From my personal experience, when I started doing this, it felt like I was doubling the exercise by those 30 seconds alone. It does something to your body.

[alenleomessi]

[JGXEN]

I am trying to live long, look good, and feel good. Lately, I've been reading a lot about how endurance exercising is not good (and possibly bad) for your overall health. I don't want to be jacked, but also don't want to have that skinny fat look some people that jog a lot have.

Key points:
-Lose 60% fat and 40% muscle when endurance training
-Your body's composition (look) doesn't change for the better. A big pear shaped person just becomes a smaller pear shaped person because they are losing so much muscle.
-The famished feeling cause you to eat more.
-As you get older you lose more and more muscle (which is bad).
-A low calorie diet generally cause people to live longer and healthier lives.
-intense training increase VO2 max much better. The heartrate spike from intense short burst training is much better for you.

These are not all haterade comments on long distance running. However, they are all directly or indirectly related to endurance training of any sorts.

I've spent the last 30 days getting into "training" shape by jogging. I think now I am going to switch it up to this:

M: Pullups, pushups, situps

T: Sprint training. 8 X 40 meters or so, with 2-4 minutes of rest in between each sprint.

W: Pullups, pushups, situps

Th:: Sprint training. 8 X 40 meters or so, with 2-4 minutes of rest in between each sprint.

F: Rest

Sat/Sun: ~3 hours of hoops each day

Any advice? No diet advice. Any personal success stories?

Your sprinting training is insufficient. I used to do intervals by running 6x400m (each 400m lap must be at most 1min30s) and a 1:1 rest ratio. Or you could do 3x800m.

[Trentknicks]

Sprinting all the way, after a point, your body needs to work at a very high intensity to cause major changes in the body. Think about it, go to your local or state marathon and I guarantee you'll see a hell of a lot of people competing who could be classified as out of shape.

If your doing say 30 seconds sprint/30 seconds light jog (don't stop moving in this time, just use it to catch your breath) and repeat for 4-6 minutes, and couple that with a healthy diet, I guarantee you'll see much better results in the next 30 days than you did the first.

Also, with your resistance training, I'd probably ease back a little on the frequency. Your body doesn't know what day it is, so you don't necessarily have to train it on a weekly basis. You seem committed and will probably get some results regardless but if I were you, and your after maximum results, here's what I'd do:

Day 1: Resistance Training
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Sprints
Day 4: Rest

And continue to run it like that. Your giving your body plenty of time between workouts to recover, remember building/retaining muscle while burning fat is the goal here. If you feel overly sore, just take another day of rest. Results are what your trying to achieve, not an attendance record.

Usual tips you probably already know:
- Starting your day with a low carb, moderate (healthy) fat and moderate/high protein meal sends the signal to your body that fat loss is the goal from the get go.

- 8-9 hours of sleep is best.

- Healthy, fibrous and nutritious food is the way to go here, don't fall for that IIFYM crap. That still works to a degree, but how do you expect your body to make pretty major physiological changes when it's being fed less than the best.

- Eating most of your carbs after or around exercise will be best for promoting fat loss, your body really needs them to restore energy. On non workout days, eating your carbs later in the day and around bedtime has been found to be more beneficial (plenty of science on it, a quick google should get you plenty of info).

Best of luck, obviously this is pretty full on, but hey, work hard and get great results in a few months or piss around and achieve the same over a year or two.

[Akrazotile]

Sprinting all the way, after a point, your body needs to work at a very high intensity to cause major changes in the body. Think about it, go to your local or state marathon and I guarantee you'll see a hell of a lot of people competing who could be classified as out of shape.

If your doing say 30 seconds sprint/30 seconds light jog (don't stop moving in this time, just use it to catch your breath) and repeat for 4-6 minutes, and couple that with a healthy diet, I guarantee you'll see much better results in the next 30 days than you did the first.

Also, with your resistance training, I'd probably ease back a little on the frequency. Your body doesn't know what day it is, so you don't necessarily have to train it on a weekly basis. You seem committed and will probably get some results regardless but if I were you, and your after maximum results, here's what I'd do:

Day 1: Resistance Training
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Sprints
Day 4: Rest

And continue to run it like that. Your giving your body plenty of time between workouts to recover, remember building/retaining muscle while burning fat is the goal here. If you feel overly sore, just take another day of rest. Results are what your trying to achieve, not an attendance record.

Usual tips you probably already know:
- Starting your day with a low carb, moderate (healthy) fat and moderate/high protein meal sends the signal to your body that fat loss is the goal from the get go.

- 8-9 hours of sleep is best.

- Healthy, fibrous and nutritious food is the way to go here, don't fall for that IIFYM crap. That still works to a degree, but how do you expect your body to make pretty major physiological changes when it's being fed less than the best.

- Eating most of your carbs after or around exercise will be best for promoting fat loss, your body really needs them to restore energy. On non workout days, eating your carbs later in the day and around bedtime has been found to be more beneficial (plenty of science on it, a quick google should get you plenty of info).

Best of luck, obviously this is pretty full on, but hey, work hard and get great results in a few months or piss around and achieve the same over a year or two.

Good advices.


You should forward this to melo.

[Rake2204]

This thread is interesting to me. I usually rely upon basketball for my conditioning shape. But when full court runs are not available, I often wonder what the best way may be for me to retain proper shape. I've noticed even when in great basketball shape, I still struggle with prolonged mid-speed endurance runs. So lately I've adjusted to intervals.

I will be curious to see what others share here. Good stuff thus far.

[sundizz]

Thanks for all the information guys. It definitely helps.

My major concern is mostly not getting hurt doing this. I have a genetically weak body when it comes to exercising haha.

So I did my sprints and I feel great. Slept like a baby. Only problem is that my heel hurts a tiny bit.

I would love to run on grass, but my only option is a semi hard surface area near the river (I'm in a foreign country). They don't have much grass anywhere here (no parks with grass around me).

I realized that my jogging shoes are like micro thin. Should I wear my basketball shoes instead to do my sprints? The thickness would absorb the punishment better I think?

[sundizz]

Akrazotile, could you expand a little bit more on the food stuff?

In the morning I generally eat 2 eggs, with a piece of toast (no butter).

In the afternoon, some beans, with rice, salsa and a bit of cheese. Or I bake some chicken breast and eat that with a bit of cheese and salsa.

Dinner usually something ethnic; like rice with vegetables/soupish type stuff.

I'm not looking to change my diet drastically, but would love to hear some non fish option for breakfast. My goal generally is to eat as much good food in a day as possible, and if I am still craving it, then allow myself a little bit of "bad food". I figure this is the best way to retrain my body and mind without going crazy and hating the process.

Since I have guinea pigs I do eat a good amount of veggies (carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, and other random stuff). I just eat it as I prepare it for them lol.

[Myth]

Your sprinting training is insufficient. I used to do intervals by running 6x400m (each 400m lap must be at most 1min30s) and a 1:1 rest ratio. Or you could do 3x800m.

Either way you need to mix things up, but in all of my 8 years of competitive sprinting, I never did 6x400m or 3x800. That might make more sense for 800m runners than sprinters. 8x40s is way closer to something sprinters would actually do, although 2 to 4 minutes rest between each one is pretty excessive. Although, we didn't do 8x40s and call it a day. The workouts were longer as a whole. And we did core workouts 6 days a week.

[Akrazotile]

Akrazotile, could you expand a little bit more on the food stuff?

In the morning I generally eat 2 eggs, with a piece of toast (no butter).

In the afternoon, some beans, with rice, salsa and a bit of cheese. Or I bake some chicken breast and eat that with a bit of cheese and salsa.

Dinner usually something ethnic; like rice with vegetables/soupish type stuff.

I'm not looking to change my diet drastically, but would love to hear some non fish option for breakfast. My goal generally is to eat as much good food in a day as possible, and if I am still craving it, then allow myself a little bit of "bad food". I figure this is the best way to retrain my body and mind without going crazy and hating the process.

Since I have guinea pigs I do eat a good amount of veggies (carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, and other random stuff). I just eat it as I prepare it for them lol.

Whut?

I dont know anything about this stuff. I was just saying the guy with the good dieting advice should pass it along to Carmelo.

[Trentknicks]

Thanks for all the information guys. It definitely helps.

My major concern is mostly not getting hurt doing this. I have a genetically weak body when it comes to exercising haha.

So I did my sprints and I feel great. Slept like a baby. Only problem is that my heel hurts a tiny bit.

I would love to run on grass, but my only option is a semi hard surface area near the river (I'm in a foreign country). They don't have much grass anywhere here (no parks with grass around me).

I realized that my jogging shoes are like micro thin. Should I wear my basketball shoes instead to do my sprints? The thickness would absorb the punishment better I think?

Akrazotile, could you expand a little bit more on the food stuff?

In the morning I generally eat 2 eggs, with a piece of toast (no butter).

In the afternoon, some beans, with rice, salsa and a bit of cheese. Or I bake some chicken breast and eat that with a bit of cheese and salsa.

Dinner usually something ethnic; like rice with vegetables/soupish type stuff.

I'm not looking to change my diet drastically, but would love to hear some non fish option for breakfast. My goal generally is to eat as much good food in a day as possible, and if I am still craving it, then allow myself a little bit of "bad food". I figure this is the best way to retrain my body and mind without going crazy and hating the process.

Since I have guinea pigs I do eat a good amount of veggies (carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, and other random stuff). I just eat it as I prepare it for them lol.

I think your referring to my post? Just out of curiosity, which country are you living in?

Injury prevention is imperative, you can't get results when your injured, so spend a few minutes warming up and doing some static/light stretching to get the loose and warmed up feeling. A rough surface isn't ideal to run on, so if you have the option, maybe try running up a hill or incline surface? This way, the intensity of your exercise is still really high, but the speed isn't going to be as fast as on a flat surface (more time to see obstacles or potholes, less stress on joints).

As for the basketball shoes, if they feel better to run in, then go for it. Better to wear out them than your ankles/knees. I usually buy good shoes but decided to be cheap once and I found my knees and ankles were sore from simply walking around at uni and work!

Diet wise, maybe you should try buy a protein powder if it's available, really easy way to supplement it into your diet on top of what your already getting. Increasing your protein intake will help in the building/maintaining of muscle, as protein is much less likely to be turned into fat. Don't wildly restrict carbs or fats, just try to get most of them from healthy sources. Here's a few ideas of healthy sources of each macronutrient (keeping in mind you don't like fish).

Protein:
- Chicken
- Eggs
- Beef/red meat
- Protein powders
- Milk

Fat:
- Eggs
- Avocado
- Almonds
- Most nuts really (go for unsalted)

Carbs:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Rice (brown's slightly better)
- Pasta (brown again)
- Bread

[JGXEN]

Either way you need to mix things up, but in all of my 8 years of competitive sprinting, I never did 6x400m or 3x800. That might make more sense for 800m runners than sprinters. 8x40s is way closer to something sprinters would actually do, although 2 to 4 minutes rest between each one is pretty excessive. Although, we didn't do 8x40s and call it a day. The workouts were longer as a whole. And we did core workouts 6 days a week.

I was in the military and that's how they trained us for the physical tests. Its good for losing weight because its considered as hiit, and it helps to increase your speed greatly for short-medium distance running(<3km)

[sundizz]

Okay thanks for the help everyone. I guess I'll keep somewhat close to what I originally planned, but instead do my sprints at the beach instead. I need to practice not going heel to toe or whatever but rather being on the balls of my feet more. I'm definitely taking it slow though and gearing up. Definitely is a lot more fun than running long distance...feels like being a kid again haha.

[Myth]

I was in the military and that's how they trained us for the physical tests. Its good for losing weight because its considered as hiit, and it helps to increase your speed greatly for short-medium distance running(<3km)

That would actually make sense with what I said. I was talking pure sprints (which is fast at losing fat and builds muscle, but not great for endurance). As I was saying, what you described would be like an 800 meter runner's workout, which would be short distance running, and (my guess) better for military personnel to get out of immediate danger zones while still having some remaining energy afterwards. 3km is actually not considered sprints at all in track.