Below is a sprint-based workout on the track. But before we get into it,let’s go over a good warm-up to perform before you do some explosive running and agility exercises.

Ever get injured in a practice, doing a sprint or doing a squat? Odds are it was because you didn’t warm up your muscles properly before you performed an explosive activity. Warming up is very important to get the blood flowing. However, warming up is more that mere stretching. Instead, you need to implement systematic movement that target the key muscles used for running and agility.

Learn this 15 minute warm up used by professional athletes like Vincent Jackson and Ben Roethlisberger to warm up before practices or games.

Hellish sprint-based cardio workout

Perform this workout on a track for agility, explosiveness, speed, and fat loss:

• 10 x 40 yard sprints
• 8 x 60 yard sprint
• 6 x 80 yard sprints
• 4 x 100 yard sprints
• 2 x 200 yard sprints
• 1 x 400 yard sprint

Marathon runners almost look sickly because long-distance running eats at your muscle joints. Sprinting is actually beneficial for your muscles and puts much less strain on your joints because you aren’t pounding on your knees for as long a period of time.

Intensity is the most efficient way to burn fat

Intensity  elevates your metabolism so much that you burn fat long after the exercise is done; whereas when you run at a steady pace, your body burns calories to perform the task but the fat burning process is over when the running is over. I don’t know about you but I like to burn fat while I’m on the couch too.

The reason these sprinters are in such top shape even though they don’t burn as many calories in their workouts as marathon runners, is because of the high intense nature it takes to run a full-out sprint. Running 10- 100 meter sprints in a practice session as opposed to 6 miles (96-100 meter segments) in a practice session is because to do a sprint your body needs to incorporate slow twitch, intermediary twitch, fast fatigue resistant twitch, and fast oxidative-glycolytic muscle fibers in order to perform the sprint.

When you run 6 miles you just incorporate slow twitch muscle fibers. Your body needs an extraordinary amount of energy to not only perform the sprint but also to recover from it. By incorporating all of the muscle fibers that the long-distance running doesn’t, you burn much more calories during the actual 100 yard sprint than the 100 yard steady paced sprinting, even though you are covering the same amount of distance. Just think about how much more energy it requires within your body to bring in 4 sets of muscle fibers as opposed to one set. High intensity training is the most efficient form of burning fat and you can do the workout in a quarter of the time it takes to run 6 miles.