Aerobic exercise (or cardio) is often seen as a necessary evil when on a quest to lose fat and get in better shape. And, no doubt, it is (although not nearly as important as diet.) However, when you think of the word cardio, most start imagining long and brutal jogs, or boring, marathon sessions on a treadmill or stationary bike.  

However, if you truly want the most benefit from cardio for your physical and mental health, then I suggest eliminating this form of cardio, which is called steady-state cardio. Instead, I recommend that you switch gears and start implementing a form of aerobic exercise that have more proven benefits, and also takes up much less time…sprinting! 

Sprinting 

Sprinting is obviously not an easy exercise. Perhaps there’s even some level of dread going on in your head when you see that word (or maybe some bad sports practice memories?). 

However, bear with me, as what I’m about to tell you will sound surprisingly simple. For sprinting, all that is needed to reap the benefits is simply one to two intense sessions per week for around 10-15 minutes. Personally, I’d recommend that most just do one sprint workout per week as this will lead to a higher motivational level and ability to stick with it for the long term. However, for those of you with greater recovery abilities and/or less overall stress, two sessions are fine. You can also potentially do more sessions if they are not of maximal intensity. 

Now, think of how long you typically have to jog on a treadmill, or cycle slowly on a bike. Often, those workouts can be very time-consuming. By contrast, sprinting can give you equal results, if not better, in a fraction of the time. 

Many Health Benefits 

In addition, there are many health benefits of sprinting. For starters, research shows that sprinting improves insulin sensitivity and glucose functioning (Babraj, et al., 2009). Other studies have shown that sprinting can improve insulin resistance (Trapp, Chisholm, Freund, & Boutcher, 2008). Thus, since insulin is important for utilizing glucose as energy, sprinting can potentially improve the way your body utilizes glucose, and can thus lead to improvements in blood sugar regulation and overall energy levels.  

Also, studies have shown that sprinting increases growth hormone (Sellami, et al., 2011) (Stokes, Nevill, Hall, & Lakomy, 2002) and testosterone secretion (Farzad, et al., 2011). These two hormones are known as anabolic hormones and they have many benefits to human health. Among other things, growth hormone and testosterone increase protein synthesis and improve insulin sensitivity. Thus, having high levels of these hormones also makes it easier for one to build muscle and lose fat. 

Furthermore, increasing growth hormone and testosterone can also result in an improve mood, increased sense of well-being, and heightened libido. Needless to say, there are many benefits of these two hormones, and sprinting is a great way to increase these hormones naturally. The key, though, is to not overdo it. 

Sprinting and Fat Loss 

It was hinted at that sprinting can be a great way to lose fat, and many studies have proven that it is an even better way to lose fat than traditional cardio. For example, the previously mentioned study conducted by Trapp, et al. (2008) also found that high-intensity intermittent exercise (i.e. sprinting) led to a significant reduction in total body mass, fat mass, trunk fat, and insulin levels. Opposingly, participants in the steady-state exercise group saw none of these benefits! Other research has shown that sprinting or high-intensity interval training leads to significantly greater fat loss compared to traditional cardio (Tremblay, Simoneau, & Bouchard, 1994). Macpherson, et al. (2011) found that sprinting led to more than double the fat loss compared to endurance training!  

Another study found that 12 weeks of high-intensity interval sprints on an exercise bike led to an average of 17 percent reduction in visceral fat (Heydari, Freund, & Boutcher, 2012). This is especially important because visceral fat has been linked to an increased risk for metabolic issues, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Also, one of the researchers in this study stated that one would need around 7 hours per week of traditional, steady-state cardio to produce these fat loss results, whereas the sprinting only took one hour per week for 12 weeks. Thus, there is solid evidence proving that sprinting can be a much more time-efficient way to lose fat and improve health. 

Increased Metabolism 

One reason why sprinting can be so beneficial to losing fat is because of its metabolic effects after the exercise is completed. For example, just two minutes of sprint-interval training has been shown to elicit identical fat loss outcomes and calories burned as 30 minutes of continuous endurance exercise (Hazell, Olver, Hamilton, & Lemon, 2012). The researchers stated that the main reason for this is because sprinting results in an increased metabolism after exercise, whereas this does not occur in steady-state exercise. Essentially, even after you’re done sprinting, your metabolism remains elevated for a while, whereas this does not occur in lower-intensity exercise, such as jogging.  

Sprinting for Mental Health 

Finally, sprinting can be a fantastic way to improve aspects of mental and cognitive health. For example, sprinting can increase levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), dopamine, and epinepherine, all of which are beneficial for learning and memory (Winter, et al., 2007). In that same study, sprinting was found to lead to even better learning outcomes when compared to low impact aerobic exercise, which further emphasizes the benefits of sprinting over jogging. 

Sprinting can also be a great way to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and this is likely because it increases many important neurotransmitters in the brain. For example, one study found that sprinting can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression more so than jogging (Chadorneshin, Cheragh-Birjandi, Ramezani, & Abtahi-Eivary, 2017). They found that there was a high correlation between increased BDNF and improvements in anxiety and depression after sprint training, indicating that increased BDNF may lead to these beneficial outcomes. Sprinting also increases dopamine and epinepherine, both of which help to improve mood and reduce depression Koppelmans & Weisenbach, 2019).  

Easy to Implement 

Overall, there are a number of health benefits of sprinting. Plus, sprinting is a much lower time commitment than jogging or other forms of steady-state cardio. Based on recent research, all you really need to do is a few 10-20 second all-out sprints per workout, and you only need to do that twice per week (Vollaard & Metcalfe, 2017). The key here, though, is to utilize all-out intensity. Nonetheless, you can easily get all of the benefits of sprinting in under 30 minutes per week, whereas jogging typically requires multiple hours every week. 

Also, if you’re concerned about not being able to sprint, cycle sprints are a great option. In fact, most of the studies have used cycle sprints as the main exercise, so feel free to do your sprints on an exercise bike if you feel that these will be easier on your joints. If you are healthy, though, it would be ideal to run sprints outside on a track or other flat surface. Lastly, any time you run sprints, just be sure to warm up properly for 10 to 15 minutes beforehand. Dynamic stretching is much better than static stretching for warming up, so incorporate exercises like high knees, buttkicks, over/under, and carioca. Then, do lower-intensity sprints, and gradually build up to your working sets. 

Efficient and Effective

Jogging and other forms of steady-state cardio aren’t necessarily bad, but, as you can see, sprinting is a much better option. Sprinting is very important for optimal physical and mental health, yet many people never do this exercise. Many people neglect the body’s innate need and desire to move because they sit down all day and then come home to sit some more! Instead, we need to move, and as I suggested, it doesn’t even need to be very taxing. All you need to do is perform sprints one to two times per week, whether in the traditional way or on a stationary bike. 

Furthermore, sprinting is much easier to implement than doing hours of boring steady-state cardio. Plus, it offers even more benefits than steady-state cardio, so it’s a win-win situation. Now, you can still incorporate the occasional bike ride or something like that if you enjoy it. However, if you want to improve your health to a greater degree, and in a fraction of the time, I highly suggest you pretty much eliminate steady-state cardio and start to incorporate sprints into your routine instead. 

References 

Babraj, J. A., Vollaard, N. B., Keast, C., Guppy, F. M., Cottrell, G., & Timmons, J. A. (2009). Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males. BMC Endocrine Disorders, 9(3), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6823-9-3 

Sellami, M., Dhahbi, W., Hayes, L. D., Padulo, J., Rhibi, F., Djemail, H., & Chaouachi, A. (2017). Combined sprint and resistance training abrogates age differences in somatotropic hormones. PLoS One, 12(8) http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0183184 

Stokes, K. A., Nevill, M. E., Hall, G. M., & Lahomy, H. K. (2002). The time course of the human growth hormone response to a 6 s and a 30 s cycle ergometer sprint. Journal of Sports Sciences, 20(6), 487-494. doi: 10.1080/02640410252925152 

Farzad, B., Gharakhanlou, R., Agha-Alinejad, H., Curby, D. G., Bayati, M., Bahraminejad, M., & Maestu, J. (2011). Physiological and performance changes from the addition of a sprint interval program to wrestling training. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(9), 2,392-2399. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181fb4a33. 

Hazell, T. J., Olver, T., Hamilton, C. D., & Lemon, P. R. (2012). Two minutes of sprint-interval exercise elicits 24-hr oxygen consumption similar to that of 30 min of continuous endurance exercise. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 22(4), 276-283. https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/22/4/article-p276.xml 

Tremblay, A., Simoneau, J. A., & Bouchard, C. (1994). Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism-Clinical and Experimental, 43(7), 814-818. https://doi.org/10.1016/0026-0495(94)90259-3 

Heydari, M., Freund, J., & Boutcher, S. H. (2012). The effect of high-intensity intermittent exercise on body composition of overweight young males. Journal of Obesity, 2012, 1-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/480467 

Trapp, E. G., Chisholm, D. J., Freund, J., & Boutcher, S. H. (2008). The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women. International Journal of Obesity, 32, 684-691. https://www.nature.com/articles/0803781 

Winter, B., Breitenstein, C., Mooren, F. C., Voelker, K., Fobker, M., Lechtermann, A., … Knecht, S. (2007). High impact running improves learning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 87(4), 597-609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2006.11.003 

Chadorneshin, H. T., Cheragh-Birjandi, S., Ramezani, S., & Abtahi-Eivary, S-H. (2017). Comparing sprint and endurance training on anxiety, depression, and its relation with brain-derived neurotrophic factor in rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 329, 1-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.034 

Koppelmans, V., & Weisenbach, S. L. (2019). Mechanisms underlying exercise as a treatment for depression. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry, 27, 617-618. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2019.02.00 

Macpherson, R. E., Hazell, T. J., Olver, T. D., Paterson, D. H., & Lemon, P. W. (2011). Run sprint interval training improves aerobic performance but not maximal cardiac output. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(1), 115-122. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181e5eacd