Strength/Mass Sprinting for Muscle Growth

[maximus__]

Wow, serious experience and knowledge, man! No, I do not compete. I do not train in club even. I was the fastest guy in High school, that is all. I like sprinting- to watch and to practice. Thank you for the information! I am training with weights for very long time.




Yes, I am traying to go in training slow. Last Monday I have sprinted around 60 m for around six times. Today, a week later, I have tried again. After a good warm up, I have started with the warm up sprints, on the third, I gave up- the stiffness and pain in my inner thighs was too much. I just ran on a mid distance and went back home, walking again.

If everything on the internet is right, I believe for max muscle gain is best to run around twice a week for about 4 to 8 times a session and for about 10- 20 sec and around 60- 100 m. If we look at sprinters, the 100 m sprinters are most jacked, but probably it depends from many other factors. Also I wonder is their any similarity with weight training- for instance would running for too short distance give you mainly power like lifting for low reps? Is adding a little longer distance running going to give you some sarcoplasmic hypetrophy?

Couple of different ways to do it mentioned in this thread. You just need to build up the capacity to do the repeated sprints. I favour a bit more volume personally and starting with longer intervals, before bringing the number down and upping the sprint reps.

 

[Adnan Adil]

Your thighs were sore for one week after 6x60 m?! I didn't think that was possible. This is not a good sign. In any case, start slower - Maximus and me have been discussing various ways to do that.

I would say you might be confusing the factors here a bit... the selection process of sprinters usually works out that the most powerful guys stay with the 100 m (most prestigious distance), and the lighter guys who may be a tad bit slower tend to move up to 200 and 400 m, where extra bulk doesn't help you because you have to carry it for longer. They then each train in a way that allows them to maximize their performance on that distance. And that is what you see on TV.
If the sprints are even shorter, even bigger people tend to do well - football blayers, weightlifters and sometimes even powerlifters can have extremely good 30 and 40 m times, even though their time on the 100 m is rarely national level. But you don't become super big if you only run 30 m
So in the end, if you want to become big, sprinting will not be a bad addition to resistance training. But whether you sprint 2 times, 3 times or five times per week will likely make little to no difference on your size gains once you're used to it. Until you are, too much extra activity will always negativel impact size gains,; on the other hand, it will make you leaner.

Few days later I have sprinted again. I had some pain knees and ankles, but it didn’t stop me running around 7- 8 times around 50- 60 m. Hour later, now, I feel great, excluding my inner front knees, I feel sharp pain there.

Sprinting might be the best form of exercise but there are better options for muscle growth.

6 x 60m is a LOT for someone who is untrained.

What is your warmup like? What rest intervals?

I would either start with ~120m of total volume per workout or start on a hill and you can do a bit more than that.

For a track session, my warm ups are easily 20 minutes. 800m jog, static stretching certain positions, dynamic stretch, build up sprints with different forms of skips and bounding. Any less and I don't feel safe going 100%. I would personally start with shorter distances, like 10m to 30m, rest about 1 minute per 10m sprinted. You can keep rest shorter on hills.

I warm up like 10 min with dynamic stretching, side and backward running and slowly progress with the sprinting- doing like 5- 7 slower pace sprints.

Couple of different ways to do it mentioned in this thread. You just need to build up the capacity to do the repeated sprints. I favour a bit more volume personally and starting with longer intervals, before bringing the number down and upping the sprint reps.

Probably I should start a little slower. Taking so much time for recovery, shows that I am training more than my body can handle.

 

[period]

Few days later I have sprinted again. I had some pain knees and ankles, but it didn’t stop me running around 7- 8 times around 50- 60 m. Hour later, now, I feel great, excluding my inner front knees, I feel sharp pain there.

You should never feel any pain DURING sprinting. If you do in training, STOP. The force acting on your body in a sprint is big enough to turn small pain into big pain in an instant, and you don't want that. Joint pain in particular is alarming: it either means you have pre-existing injuries (in which case you should consider physiotherapy rather than sprinting) or your running form is off - in which case you should work on your running form rather than sprint.

As for the pain in the "Inner front knees" afterwards, if the pain is in the muscle, it means the Vastus Medialis needs to be strengthened (front squats do that, for example); if it's in the joint, it's the meniscus, and then again, you should not be sprinting currently.

 

[Adnan Adil]

You should never feel any pain DURING sprinting. If you do in training, STOP. The force acting on your body in a sprint is big enough to turn small pain into big pain in an instant, and you don't want that. Joint pain in particular is alarming: it either means you have pre-existing injuries (in which case you should consider physiotherapy rather than sprinting) or your running form is off - in which case you should work on your running form rather than sprint.

As for the pain in the "Inner front knees" afterwards, if the pain is in the muscle, it means the Vastus Medialis needs to be strengthened (front squats do that, for example); if it's in the joint, it's the meniscus, and then again, you should not be sprinting currently.

It was stupid decision of mine to keep pushing through the pain. I do not act like that usually, but I am short on time in recent times and I was trying to use my time as much as possible. I’ve took some time off work and the end of my holiday is closing in, so that’s why I am working harder and more often. My mistakes were that I know that my form is not polished via training and also I have put some extra weight (I wanted to), but this probably takes toll on the joints. I plan to concentrate on my upper body in the coming days and to give my legs a little rest- probably some calf and glute training and some isometric holds.

 

[period]

It was stupid decision of mine to keep pushing through the pain. I do not act like that usually, but I am short on time in recent times and I was trying to use my time as much as possible. I’ve took some time off work and the end of my holiday is closing in, so that’s why I am working harder and more often. My mistakes were that I know that my form is not polished via training and also I have put some extra weight (I wanted to), but this probably takes toll on the joints. I plan to concentrate on my upper body in the coming days and to give my legs a little rest- probably some calf and glute training and some isometric holds.

Well, let's hope you didn't really wreck anything. When you get back to your experiment, I would recommend strengthening the Vastus Medialis and doing the running ABC - first on its own and later as a warm-up.
You can find a lot of videos on that, here's just a random one:

 

[Adnan Adil]

Well, let's hope you didn't really wreck anything. When you get back to your experiment, I would recommend strengthening the Vastus Medialis and doing the running ABC - first on its own and later as a warm-up.
You can find a lot of videos on that, here's just a random one:

Thank you very much! You are very supportive! If I continue with running, for sure I would know who I can ask for guidance!

 

[Kforcer]

For something where you wanna be fairly shredded and still jacked, I think sprinting is great.