As a martial artist, I rely heavily on sprinting for conditioning, to develop explosiveness and power, to recruit fast twitch muscle, mental toughness, to get a shredded body and to stimulate massive human growth hormone spikes.
WHAT IS HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE?
Human growth hormone (HGH) is an anabolic hormone that stimulates cell reproduction, regeneration and growth in humans. Human growth hormone has many functions in the adult body, some of these include:
- Increasing bone density
- Increasing muscle mass
- Stimulates lipolysis (breaks down fat cells)
- Stimulates protein synthesis
So human growth hormone means more muscle and less fat. A deficiency will result in less muscle and more fat tissue as well as low bone density and diminished cartilage in the joints.
WHY ONLY CERTAIN EXERCISE ACTIVITIES SPIKE GROWTH HORMONE
I am an avid believer in walking and other low intensity exercises to maintain baseline health. In fact, I recommend walking over jogging as a disease prevention strategy any day of the week. Though, if we are looking for a constant improvement in our performance, walking will never get us there. We adapt to exactly what our exercise is so when walking, our body only needs to keep fit and healthy for an easy walk.
A sprint is defined as a short bout of full speed running. When we commit ourselves to running as hard as we can, we ask everything from our physical body and mental efforts. We are sending our body the signal that we need all the running power we possess and even more to survive in our environment. At a full sprint our muscle cells are being damaged, our connective tissue is thoroughly stressed and our bones are under pressure. All these stresses come together to send messages to our brain, more specifically the signal of stress is sent to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then signals the pituitary to synthesize and secrete human growth hormone which is released into the bloodstream where it stimulates all of our stressed tissues to grow even stronger than before the sprint.
There are other modes of training which will release growth hormone in the body but I find sprinting to be number one. The basic requirement is that the body is exerting itself at 100% intensity for as long as it can maintain 100% output.
HOW TO SPRINT FOR PEAK Human Growth Hormone RELEASE
One study compared the blood levels of HGH in individuals who completed a 6 second sprint against individuals who completed a 30 second sprint. While the 6 second sprint did increase human growth hormone, 30 seconds sprint increased growth hormone blood levels 430% higher than 6 seconds. This is likely because 30 seconds provided enough time for lactic acid to saturate the muscles (that burning in the muscles) and reach the lactate threshold. It has been shown that the more lactate buildup we can achieve in more of our muscle tissue, the more human growth hormone is flushed into our bloodstream. We begin to see why sprinting is so effective in spiking up growth hormone. All of the muscles in the legs up through the core are going to reach lactate threshold in a 30 second all out sprint.
Study Link: The time course of the human growth hormone response to a 6 s and a 30 s cycle ergometer sprint. (Stokes et al. 2002)
A 430% increase from a single sprint is a very nice dosage but sprint intervals AKA high intensity interval training (HIIT) will have an even greater impact on HGH levels. A study conducted by Phil Campbell and his colleagues showed that 8 sprint intervals with a rest between each sprint increased human growth hormone levels by an average of 771%! After 8 weeks the average body fat lost was 31%. In terms of body fat lost, sprint training is shown here to be twice as effective as human growth hormone injections.
In terms of sprint volume, a 20-30 second sprint with 90 seconds of rest between each sprint seems to be most effective. Of course we need at least one sprint and we can increase our results up to eight sprints before overtraining really kicks in which should always be avoided.
Perhaps the most important part of sprint training is the intensity. So many people who say they run sprints are actually just “running” maybe 80 or 90 percent maximum effort. In terms of hormonal and physiological results, just running hard is not going to bring us anything close to the results that 100% maximum effort sprints will. It is truly a mental effort. I always imagine a lion is only a half pace behind me as I sprint which ensures I am fighting for my life, 110% effort. If you can apply this principle in life, you will go far.
WHAT IF I CANNOT RUN?
If we have injuries that prevent us from safely running at 100% intensity or are just not fit enough to sprint by means of running, can we still sprint? Absolutely! The first two methods of sprinting I would recommend for the unfit would be swimming and elliptical sprints. These are zero impact training strategies that almost everyone can use. I like to mix these strategies in once in a while when I have been training especially hard. The gameplan is no different, get on the elliptical or into the water and go 110% effort for 20-30 seconds with a 90 second rest period with 1-8 sprints.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE SPRINT?
The proper sprint frequency is different for everyone. The great thing is that, on average, it takes the body seven days rest before it is fully recovered from the sprinting stress. This means we can rest easy for a whole week knowing our entire body is regenerating into a stronger, faster and much more fit machine.
The most common mistake is to sprint several times per week. This means that the sprinter is putting their body through the catabolic (breaking down) stresses of sprinting before it has completed the anabolic (rebuilding stronger) phase necessary to recover from the last sprint. With this overtraining, the body is never actually allowed to become stronger. Less is more with high intensity interval training.
A new, out of shape sprinter may be ready to sprint again only five days after the first sprint. This is because the sprinter is not particularly strong in their sprint yet and is not able to stress and tear down the muscles and connective tissue to a great degree (both which will grow back stronger). A conditioned sprinter can exert great muscular force and tear down much more tissues with their sprint. Accordingly a conditioned athlete will need a longer recovery of seven, up to fourteen days.
How do we know when it is time to sprint again? The best indicator is simple. How do you feel? If you have a sprint planned but are dreading it, feeling drained and tired, your body has not recovered yet. If you are up and at it, ready to rip and claw, ready to tear up some turf, your body is recovered stronger than before and it is time for another evolution.
UNIQUE BENEFITS OF SPRINTING
- Studies from 2005 in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that three to seven all-out bicycle sprints, done for thirty seconds with a four minute rest between sprints, done six times over two weeks are as effective as 90 to 120 minutes of moderate intensity cycling done six times over two weeks. Both exercise groups improved endurance capacity by nearly 100%. This shows that 15 MINUTES time spent sprinting improves endurance as much as 9 to 12 HOURS of moderate intensity exercise. Take that joggers. Also desirable about sprinting, those sprinting minutes will be increasing growth hormones and increasing muscle, bone and connective tissue mass. Jogging with that volume will increase stress hormones and muscle wasting. No brainer?
- It has been shown multiple timesthat high intensity sprint training improves heart health more effectively than moderate intensity endurance training (sorry joggers). Studies show that sprint training improve stroke volume, lower resting and active heart rate, improved arterial structure and lowered inflammation through the body.
- Sprinting makes us harder to kill. Anytime we are training at our highest tolerated intensity, our mental toughness is going to continue to improve. A sprinter is going to be able to fight, maybe for their life, or just in everyday life harder than the average person. Pair this with increased muscle mass, connective tissue and bone structure. We are much harder to kill. Our loved ones will thank us.
- Sprinting will grow our brain, no matter our age. Sprint training increases the synthesis of a protein in the body called FNDC5. This protein stimulates the production of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Growth Factor or BDNGF. BDNGF not only protects the health and survival of our existing nerves and synapses, it stimulates the growth of new ones.
- Sprinting saves time. One to fifteen minutes per week of sprints or endless hours of “cardio”? With all the extra time, we can go much farther in life.
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