How Does Sprinting Get A Six Pack?

Abdominal muscle | Exercise

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

sprinting six pack personal training

As Chris has already said in his blog this week ‘How To Build A Functional Core’ http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/build-strong-functional-core/, spending all your training doing sit ups and crunches will not lead you to that washboard stomach you are looking for. True core strength is built using big compound movements and total body workouts will trigger off the fat removal process from your abdominal area leaving a chiselled physique fit for a Greek sculpture. A fantastic exercise to get this process started is SPRINTS. If you’re all sat scratching your head thinking ‘how does sprinting get a six pack’, or what type of sprinting should I be doing…..read on!A study found that 6 weeks of training focusing on the abdominals alone produced no loss of body fat. The participants spent 4 hours each week doing Ab cycles, crunches and sit ups. However introducing high intensity sprints into your workouts will turn this around.

Introducing high intensity sprints a few days a week into your programme will increase fat loss. Trading in your sit up routine for 20-30 min of sprints is much more effective to help you towards your goals.

Here are some examples of sprints.

  • If you’re in tip top shape use a 1:1 sprint to rest protocol, therefore you may sprint hard for 60 seconds, and then recover for 60 seconds, repeat this 8-10 times.
  • Use the 30-20-10 protocol where you jog for 30 sec, run for 20 seconds and sprint for 10 seconds repeat for 4 minutes then rest for 1.5 mins
  • 10 full speed ahead sprints with 30 sec rest

So there you go, hopefully you can now the answer the question of how does sprinting get a six pack, so get out there and get some sprints in all you need is a watch and some headphones!

Enjoy!

LH