Benefits that sprinting/intervals can have on the body

I love sprinting. Coach Erik got me doing sprints/intervals over a decade ago as opposed to long duration, low-intensity cardio when he prepared me for one of my earlier bodybuilding shows. The results from the sprinting (along with his diet and training program) got me down to very low fat levels. What’s interesting is that over the years more and more research has been published about the benefits of sprinting/intervals can have on the body. For example, researchers at the University of South Wales split 46 overweight men who were in their 20s into two groups. One group served as the control. Basically, they did nothing. The second group performed intervals 3 times a week for 12 weeks. The men would do 20 minutes of intervals by cycling between 8s of sprinting and 12s of recovery (low-intensity work). This is all they did. They didn’t follow a calorie-restricted diet. Nor did they do any additional weight training.

The result? The men who performed intervals increased their maximal workload (in other words they were able to train at a higher level by the end of study), lost 4.4 pounds of fat and increased their fat-free mass (e.g. muscle) by 2.6 pounds whereas the control group didn’t really decrease or increase anything. Now that fat loss/muscle gain may not seem like a lot, but if you take into account that the men only performed an hour of intervals a week and didn’t have to diet or lift weights then the overall results are looking good. Besides, I think it’s safe to say that had the interval training been combined with an appropriate diet and training program then the results would have been that much better.

That being said, there are quite a few other studies showing the benefits of intervals and I’ll probably write about them in future posts. However, if you’re interested in learning more about interval training right now then head to the LBC website by clicking on the link in the comment section. Coach Erik wrote a great article on the subject and gives a recommendation on the work-to-rest ratio to follow, which is the same one I used leading up to the aforementioned bodybuilding show I did.