The Sprint Workout Guide
very powerful medicine
What’s up friends. We’ve had some great workouts on the Marina Green on the field and under the sun. They went really well.
I’ve developed a sprint workout guide to make the training easy to follow, and I want to share it here for anyone doing this elsewhere. Thus far all our workouts have 3 core components.
Part 1: Warm up [dynamic stretching]
Part 2: Power training [jumping and plyometrics]
Part 3: Speed training [sprints]
This is guide is meant to be a foundation for new or inexperienced sprinters. Though it is complete in itself, you can add or mix and match if you are more advanced. This is intentionally designed to be extendable to any skill level. Remember you are training sprints - so take all the rest you need in between high effort movements. This is not cardio, it’s about maximizing your effort and power.
Here is the actual workout thus far
Part 1: Dynamic warm up
Core movements
Optional movements based on skill level and time constraint
Part 2: Power training
Core movement
Power skips x 3-6 rounds
This is probably my favorite movement other than sprinting itself, it’s great for so many reasons - namely that you are able to reach max capacity so easily, and it trains triple extension which pretty much everyone neglects
Try skipping for height and for distance, they feel different
Optional movements based on skill level and time constraint
Low hurdle jumps x 3-6 rounds
Try them with 2 legs, 1 leg, and going sideways
Bounding x 3-6 rounds
This is more advanced and not for everyone as it places lots of force on your joints
Part 3: Speed training
Core movement [pick one or two]
Flying sprints x 3-6 rounds
This is probably the best way to get into a sprint if you are not already a trained sprinter, it’s safer than an all out sprint and requires less distance
Try 10/20/30 meter build ups and then 10/20/30 meter sprints
Striders x 3-6 rounds
This is a good alternative to flying sprints if you are injured, have some sort of limitation, or perhaps already did a distance run for the day and don’t have the gas to go all out.
Agility sprints x 3-6 rounds
Three phase run - use cones for 5 / 10 / 15 meters
Z sprints x 3-6 rounds
Three phase run - Acceleration, Drive, Max Velocity - based on the Brother Faris book
Use cones or anything visual to mark each phase
We are doing these as 10-20 meters per phase, for 60 meters max
I haven’t seen these documented elsewhere, though I am sure I’m not the first to figure these out. They are really neat because they feel like a realistic representation of a race, but they are short enough to optimize for technique and mechanics.
If you aren’t sprinting yet, I really think you should give it a try. Paul said it perfectly - “it’s very powerful medicine”.
More resources
My original teacher was Coach Saso in high school. If he’s reading this - what’s up, Coach.
More recently I’ve been learning from lots of exceptional athletes online, and I want to give them a shout out. You should go check them out.
Thank you for being my teachers
Don’t forget to have some fun in the sun when you run!
Nate