Return to Sprinting: Framework + 8 Week Progression
I’ve seen the “95% of adults over the age of 30 will never sprint again” making its rounds through social media over the last few months. And while I have not been able to find the study to actually support that statistic, its popularity points towards there being some truth in the idea that after a certain age we stop sprinting or moving powerfully in general. Outside of sport, what activities of daily living require exerting maximum power in less than 10 second bursts? Chasing your kid or dog around maybe…outside of that I can’t think of anything.
So if it’s not a part of daily living, then why does it matter if you never sprint again? Honestly, I don’t think it does, but I do know that improving and maintaining our capacity to produce power as we age does matter. And sprinting is a great way to do that. It’s important for the function of our nervous system, bone density, tissue health, and is associated with a significant decrease in risk of falls and hospitalization after 70.
So if you’ve taken time off from athletic activities in the last months and years that require you to sprint, jump, and move at maximum velocity then it’s probably best to return to sprinting in a progressive manner. You’re tendons and muscles will thank you!
Principles important to this framework:
Specificity: You’re tissues, muscles, and nervous system will adapt to the specific demands placed on it. So if you want to prepare them for sprinting, then you are going to have to sprint.
Progressive Overload: With that said, we want to progressively build you back up to sprinting at maximum velocity over the 8 weeks. Think about sprinting like a one rep max. I’m not going to have you walk back into the gym on day 1 and ask you to 1RM your deadlift. We’ll prepare that movement pattern and those muscles/tissues with higher volume, lower intensity work before working up to that.
Components of the Framework:
General Preparation: This is the general warm up. A whole routine for this is beyond the scope of this artcile, but I am going to place a link HERE for General Prep routine (It just hasn’t been created yet). It should consistent of soft tissue work (think foam roller, lacrosse ball, etc), move into general movement to elevate the heart rate past 70% of max and break a sweat, and finally some range of motion work for whole body.
Specific Preparation: The goal of this component of the frame work is to prepare the specific muscles, tendons, movement patterns, and the nervous system for the the training days sprinting efforts (it will also prepare for you for future sprinting progressions). Going fully in depth here is beyond the scope of this article, but I will put together a program for this in the future and link it HERE when it’s ready. It will include isolation work for the muscles of the hips, knees, and ankle complex, progressions for absorbing force (or the pre-stretch phase of the stretch shortening cycle), low intensity plyometrics, jumps, skips, and high intensity plyometrics.
Sprints: These are the sprint specific exercises that will progress over 8 weeks leading into a full return. This is what I am going to outline below. There are a few different types of sprints we can do to help progressively build up to max velocity accelerations and sprinting. The general idea is to start slow and build speed over the 8 weeks. Starting slow doesn’t necessarily mean moving slow however. We can slow sprinting down by adding resistance. We add resistance to sprinting by running uphill, pushing a sled, wall drills, anchoring to a band, or pulling a sled.
8 week Return to sprinting progression
General and Specific Preparation work should be completed prior to the sprinting activities listed below.
% refers to percent of maximum speed. R refers to the amount of rest between reps and/or sets. These can be completed on the same day, or it could be split into a resisted day and an unresisted day.
Week 1
Resisted: 4 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 80%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: 3 x 30 yards at 70%, 3 x 50 yards at 70%, R = 90 seconds
Week 2
Resisted: 6 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 80%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: 4x 30 yards at 70%, 4 x 50 yards at 70%, R = 90 second
Week 3
Resisted: 5 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 90%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: 5 x 30 yards at 70%, 5 x 50 yards at 70%, R = 90 seconds
Week 4
Resisted: 6 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 90%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: 3 x 30 yards at 70%, 2 x 30 yards at 80%, 3 x 50 yards at 70%, 2 x 50 yards at 80% R = 90 seconds
Week 5
Resisted: 4 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 100%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: Unresisted: 2 x 30 yards at 70%, 2 x 30 yards at 80%, 1 x 30 yards at 90%, 2 x 50 yards at 70%, 2 x 50 yards at 80%, 1 x 50 yards at 90%, R = 90 seconds
Week 6
Resisted: 6 x 15 yards (or 8 seconds if using a wall) at 100%, R = 60 seconds
Unresisted: 3 x 30 yards at 80%, 2 x 30 yards at 90%, 3 x 50 yards at 80%, 2 x 50 yards at 90%, R = 90 seconds
Week 7
Unresisted: 2x 15 yards at 80%, 2 x 15 yards at 90%, 2 x 30 yards at 80%, 3 x 30 yards at 90%, 2 x 50 yards at 80%, 3 x 50 yards at 90%, R = 90 seconds
Week 8
Unresisted: 2 x 15 yards at 90%, 1 x 15 yards at 100%, 2 x 30 yards at 90%, 1 x 30 yards at 100%, 2 x 50 yards at 90%, 1 x 50 yards at 100%
There are a lot of ways to put this type of program together. And without knowing your exact starting point a general return to sprinting protocol like the one above may not be appropriate to your starting place. In general, start in a place that feels too easy and slowly build from there. As always, I’m happy to put together a program specific to you, just email me with what you’re looking for and i’ll take it from there: alex@evergreen-performance.com
Cheers - Al