March 10, 2025 • 23 mins
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What's the best form of cardio for fat loss? If you lift weights, will cardio kill your gains?
Learn why SPRINTING is the secret weapon for lifters who want explosive strength and a leaner physique without compromising their gains.
Discover how this form of high-intensity movement complements your strength, power, and muscle development while accelerating fat loss.
Main Takeaways:
- Sprinting recruits the same type II muscle fibers you use during heavy lifting
- The hormonal response to sprinting is more similar to heavy lifting than cardio
- You'll burn fat more efficiently while preserving muscle mass
- Just 1-2 short sessions per week creates significant benefits for lifters
Episode Resources:
- Join WWPU and get access to tomorrow's live sprinting workshop (and the replay) and your first challenge + 2 weeks FREE: witsandweights.com/physique
- Related episode: Walking vs. Running for Fat Loss and Longevity (Brad Kearns)
Timestamps:
0:00 - Why sprinting is different from cardio
4:33 - The problem with traditional cardio
6:52 - 7 benefits of sprinting for lifters
7:22 - Benefit #1: Improved conditioning without muscle loss
9:09 - Benefit #2: Enhanced fat loss while preserving strength
10:23 - Benefit #3: Explosive power development
11:25 - Benefit #4: Optimized hormonal environment
12:27 - Benefit #5: Direct strength carryover
14:00 - Benefit #6: Enhanced recovery capacity
15:37 - Benefit #7: Mental toughness & power output
16:34 - The sprinting protocol explained
21:30 - Implementing sprinting efficiently in your training
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
One of the most common questions I get is what
do I do for cardio or willcardio kill my gains?
Well, forget traditional cardio, hiit workouts or metabolic
conditioning.
There's a form ofhigh-intensity movement that's
completely different, one thatcan complement your strength,
power and muscle developmentwhile accelerating fat loss.
Today, we're uncovering whysprinting true anaerobic
(00:23):
sprinting is the secret weaponfor lifters who want explosive
strength and a leaner physiquewithout compromising their gains
.
You'll learn the science behindwhy sprinting complements
muscle building, while otherforms of conditioning tend to
break it down, and exactly howto implement it to accelerate
your results.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:53):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we are examining why
sprinting belongs in everyserious lifter's training
arsenal.
Let me be clear we are nottalking about cardio jogging or
those exhausting HIIT circuitsthat leave you drained.
We are talking about pure,explosive, anaerobic work, the
(01:16):
kind that triggers muscle fiberrecruitment and hormonal
responses similar to heavylifting.
Even if you've sworn off cardioto protect your gains, the
unique benefits of propersprinting might change your mind
.
Now, before we get into thesebenefits, I want to tell you
about two exciting thingshappening in our Wits and
Weights Physique Universitycoaching program.
First, tomorrow I am hosting alive workshop where I'll break
(01:39):
down my complete sprintingprotocol the exact method I use
with clients to accelerateresults, to improve fat loss, to
get leaner without losingmuscle, and it is really a game
changer.
If you're wondering how toimplement your quote unquote
cardio Plus, we are kicking offour first ever transformation
challenge in the community.
We're going to have monthlychallenges going forward and
(02:01):
when you join WWPU now today,you're going to get free access
to both the workshop and thechallenge and 14 days of access
to sort of kick the tires andsee what it's all about.
So click the link in the shownotes or head to
witsandweightscom slash physiqueto learn all about Physique
University and everything that'sincluded, as well as get free
(02:22):
access for two weeks and you'llhave access to tomorrow's
workshop on sprinting.
As well as get free access fortwo weeks and you'll have access
to tomorrow's workshop onsprinting as well as our first
challenge all the resourcesassociated with that, as soon as
you join.
All right, let's break this downinto three segments when we
cover sprinting today.
First, I'm going to talk aboutwhat most lifters get wrong
about cardio and conditioningand why sprinting is
(02:42):
fundamentally different.
It is its own term, sprinting.
We don't want to confuse thatwith running totally different
things.
And that's the first thing.
Second, we're going to exploreseven research-backed benefits
that make sprinting uniquelyvaluable in and of itself for
anyone focused on buildingstrength and muscle.
This is something I'mpersonally incorporating now
(03:03):
that I wasn't before.
It is a game changer.
It's a level up in my personaleducation, both as a podcaster
and a coach, and also for myclients.
Finally, I'm gonna outline theframework for implementing
sprinting in your trainingwithout compromising your
primary goals.
And again, if you wanna join usfor tomorrow's live workshop in
the Physique University, justjoin today.
Again, you can cancel literallyright after the workshop if you
(03:24):
don't think it's for you, butat least you can be there.
It's live, it's on Zoom, you'llget all the resources, you'll
get the guide and I'm going togo over specific protocols in
much more detail than what I'mcovering today.
All right, let's start with theelephant in the room, which is
this widespread fear of cardioin the lifting community, and
there's either a fear of it, orpeople are doing it wrong, or
(03:45):
they think they have to do a lotof it, or that it's the way to
instigate fat loss.
And I've done other episodesabout cardio itself and the
value of walking as opposed todoing chronic what's called
metronomic cardio like running.
But then we have on the otherside people saying well, I have
heard that too much cardio isgoing to interfere with my
(04:06):
recovery, interfere with mygains, so I'm just not going to
do it at all.
And I think I think the fearisn't entirely unfounded because
traditional cardio trainingthat we are all used to in our
head, which is, you know,excessive, oftentimes
incorrectly in terms of form,especially if you're a runner.
There's a lot of heel striking,cushioned shoes, just terrible
for your joints, for yourrecovery, for muscle tearing.
(04:28):
That can definitely interferewith muscle growth and strength
development, for sure.
And there is solid evidenceshowing that too much endurance
work can elevate cortisol.
Especially when you have theselong sessions and now you're
just taking that cortisol upchronically.
It can create excessivesystemic fatigue and then that
impacts your lifting performance.
You get to the gym and nowyou're sluggish, you're drained,
(04:49):
you can't push as heavy or hard.
It can generate competingadaptation signals to your
muscle development.
So your body's like am I inendurance mode or am I in muscle
building mode and then theyincrease your overall
inflammation and keep youunder-recovered just
indefinitely, so to speak.
Where most people get this wrong, though, is they lump all forms
(05:12):
of conditioning into the samecategory.
Right, they hear cardio andthey immediately think of long
runs and less psyching, thebrutal hit circuits for those of
us who are familiar withCrossFit or F45, and they kind
of destroy you, right, and forsome people, that's a badge of
honor.
Yeah, it killed me, itdestroyed me, I couldn't get up.
That is not a good thing.
Now, this is like saying thatall resistance training is the
(05:32):
same, whether you're doinglightweight, high rep pump work
or heavy compound movements.
No, it's not all the same.
The stimulus matters enormously,and sprinting is fundamentally
different.
It's a unique form of I don'teven know if I call it
conditioning, but it'sdefinitely a specialization that
is missing from a lot of ourrepertoires.
(05:52):
It is not endurance work, right.
It's not even really cardio inthe traditional sense, because,
true, sprinting is a pureexpression of power, right, it's
more like an explosive lift,that concentric on your bench
press or your squat, than aconditioning session, and when
you sprint properly, you'rerecruiting the same type two
muscle fibers that you targetduring heavy squats or deadlifts
(06:15):
, you're actually training yournervous system to generate
maximum force in minimal time.
And, just as a side tangent,look at the physiques of a 100
meter, 200 meter sprinter andcompare that to a long distance
runner.
I'm not saying it's all aboutphysique, but there is a
difference in how the bodyexpresses and develops itself to
(06:35):
support that specialty.
And this distinction is reallyimportant because it completely
changes how your body respondsto training.
Instead of breaking down muscletissue to fuel this long
duration work, you're actuallycreating an anabolic environment
that supports muscle growth andstrength development.
We're going to touch on this alittle bit.
I don't want you to think thatsprinting itself is how you
(06:56):
build muscle, but it supports itand it can complement it in
really almost magical ways.
It's pretty incredible.
So that's why sprinting isdifferent.
Now I want to break down theseven specific benefits that
make it uniquely valuable forlifters.
I'm of a mind now that everyoneshould be doing this.
These are not theoretical.
They're backed by research,they're backed by real world
(07:18):
experience with athletes, withlifters, and so I'm going to go
through each one.
Number one is you can improveyour conditioning very
effectively without muscle loss.
And the first and mostimmediate benefit here is really
related to improved workcapacity, but without any of the
downsides of traditional cardiophosphagen energy system, right
(07:42):
, the ATP-CP, the adenosinetriphosphate, creatine phosphate
system, and that is the sameone you use for heavy lifts as
opposed to your glycolyticglycogen burning system, and so
that means you're going to havebetter recovery between sets
during your lifting sessions.
Because you have this higherwork capacity, you have an
enhanced ability to sustain yourintensity throughout your
(08:03):
workouts and then improvedoverall training capacity, but
without breaking down muscle inthe process.
And I don't want to make itsound like all other forms of
cardio aren't going to help youget conditioned.
I do think you can do low-gradeworkouts, intent, like what
they call low intensity, steadystate cardio, and as long as
(08:23):
it's not running, um, if it'ssomething that's concentrically
focused, like being on a bike orswimming or pushing a prowler,
I still I still can recommendthat to like.
It's not going to necessarilyhurt doing that.
If it's done a couple of timesa week, you know for far less of
the amount of time as you liftweights.
That's still the benchmark.
I still stand by that.
You don't necessarily need todo it.
(08:45):
In fact, I would prefer youjust walk and sometimes make
your walking a little bit harderlike rucking weighted vests,
inclines, walking really fast,things like that than those
other forms of cardio.
And then add sprinting in forits unique benefits.
Trust me, sprinting is its ownthing.
You've got to be doing this.
Number two so okay, so that'snumber one.
It increases your work capacitywithout any of the downsides.
(09:05):
Number two it enhances fat loss.
Okay, and this I used to beskeptical over.
I didn't understand quite whythat would be the case.
But there's a few differentreasons for it.
One has to do with hormones,which we're actually going to
put into a separate category andtalk about in a moment.
For this one, I'm just going tofocus on what they call the
(09:30):
EPOC effect excess post-exerciseoxygen consumption, where your
body stays in a heightenedmetabolic state for hours after
your session.
So this really does kind of comedown to a little bit of a
calorie burn thing, right, kindof like when the benefits of
HIIT that they've said.
Well, with HIIT you can burn alot of calories in a short
amount of time.
The problem with HIIT is youcould push past that fat burning
point into the height, thestress triggering point.
With sprinting you don't get tothat point.
(09:51):
So you're kind of like givingyourself a little bit of a boost
is what I like to think of itand your body will kind of tail
off into that calorie burn longafter you finish, which is
pretty cool.
And then your body's going topreferentially burn fat because
(10:11):
of the mode of the anaerobicmode of training.
And of course, you maintainmuscle mass because you're
triggering strength, notendurance.
So that also enhances fat loss,right.
So all these little sideeffects of sprinting where your
body perceives it as more of astrength activity rather than an
endurance activity, and yet youget the cardio benefits.
Number three is explosive powerdevelopment.
This is where sprinting kind ofstands on its own, other than
(10:32):
dynamic effort type work.
So what I mean by that is foranybody who's used to using
speed work in the gym, where youmight use a submaximal weight
for just a few reps but then youmight do like 10 sets with very
short rest periods and useexplosive force.
It's kind of in that regime,right, but a lot of people are
not doing that in theirprogramming, nor do you
(10:53):
necessarily have to.
But this is definitely wheresprinting shines, because every
sprint is essentially a fullbody plyometric movement.
Right, you're teaching yourbody to generate maximum force
in minimal time, to recruitthose high threshold motor units
, to improve the rate of forcedevelopment, and all of these
directly carry over to yourlifting performance.
(11:14):
I would be interested to see ifyou incorporate sprinting, how
it actually improves potentiallysome of your lifts and
definitely lower body lifts, butjust lifts in general, all
right.
Benefit number four is theoptimized hormonal environment.
So the hormonal response tosprinting is really helpful and
critical.
It's more similar to heavylifting than traditional cardio.
(11:35):
We're talking about increasedtestosterone, growth hormone,
lower cortisol response.
It's like how lifting increasesyour stress and blood pressure
in the moment the acute responsebut it lowers the chronic
response compared to endurancework, whereas endurance activity
excuse me, cardio couldactually ramp that up and
(11:55):
increase your stress.
I know people say well, I runto relieve stress and it's
enjoyable.
That's like saying I drinkalcohol to relieve stress.
It doesn't quite work becauseit actually increases your
chronic stress.
It increases your insulinsensitivity as well, which is
incredible, and that helps withnutrient partitioning and fat
loss and your health markers allaround.
(12:15):
We know blood sugar controlagain same effect as lifting has
, but this is a form of quoteunquote cardio.
So that's benefit number fouris the hormonal environment
hugely beneficial.
Benefit number five is thedirect strength carryover, which
I've already alluded to, but Iwanted to put it in its own item
because the movement patternsin sprinting can enhance your
(12:37):
lifting mechanics for primarilythe lower body lifts.
Think about your hip drive,right, which is critical for
squats and deadlifts, not justthe hip drive, but really the
development systemically of yourbody as a system.
Right, it's a movement pattern.
It's the same reason we like todo full body squats is.
It recruits all the muscles insynchrony, right as an
(13:00):
orchestrated system.
So you think your squats anddeadlifts could potentially be
enhanced.
You get better at what's calledtriple extension your ankles,
your knees, your hips, the threejoints.
When you think compound lift isbecause multiple joints are
involved.
When you do a squat, yourankles, your knees and your hips
are involved and studies haveshown sprinting can improve your
(13:22):
triple extension.
So if you're like, hey, myankles are tight or I don't feel
like I have the range orthey're, you know, my knees have
been bothering me, sprintingmight be able to help with that,
believe it or not, whereasrunning can often have the
opposite effect.
It could really bang up yourknees and ankles, especially the
way most people do it.
And so then you get improvedoverall body coordination and
(13:43):
control.
I mean, look, when you sprint,it is a primal, invigorating
movement that is very human andit puts you, it enhances your
mind muscle connection like fewother things.
And so think about how thatcarries directly over to lifting
.
All right.
Number six the benefit ofsprinting is your recovery
(14:04):
capacity.
Now, this is a little bitdifferent than the work capacity
.
This is recovery betweensessions.
So proper sprinting, it does afew things.
That helps recovery.
And again, it seemscounterintuitive because it's
this very explosive.
It seems like a taxing thingsprinting itself.
But remember, it's extremelyshort, at least the protocol
(14:25):
we're going to talk about.
Stick around.
I'm going to talk about theprotocol in a bit.
It's extremely short and itdoes not go past into that
stressful regime.
So what it does do is itstrengthens your connective
tissue, it improves blood flowwithout creating the excessive
inflammation, and so it helpsyou build your work capacity
gradually and systematically.
And, by the way, when you startsprinting it's pretty much
(14:45):
going to gas you.
You're probably not going to beable to do the full protocol,
trust me, even if you'requote-unquote fit, you may not
be able to handle the fullprotocol on day one.
You're going to work up to itand once you can do the full
number of sets, then you're justgoing to get faster and faster.
That's the way you're going toprogress.
You're not going to add moretime, you're never going to add
(15:06):
more sets.
You're going to get up to sortof the main protocol and then
you're going to get faster andfaster.
And that is I mean, that'salmost, I guess proof that it's
going to improve yourconditioning in that sense.
Only because you're not able todo it as much.
The first session, and then youcan the second, and then better
and better and better.
Right, but anyway, thisenhances recovery capacity
between your lifting sessions,which is why well, not why, but
(15:29):
I like doing sprinting on an offday or on an upper body day
later on, far removed from yourlifting.
And then number seven, the finalbenefit I want to talk about
today is the mental toughnessand power output.
I'm just kind of linking thesetogether.
The psychological demands ofsprinting are unique.
(15:49):
Now that I've done it I'vestarted doing it myself I
recognize that it's its own formof mental resilience because,
say, unlike grinding through along set or a cardio session,
that's a different mental issueor mental challenge Sprinting.
It requires you to becompletely focused for short,
(16:10):
intense bursts, which reminds mea lot of like a single rep of a
very heavy squat, for example.
It requires you to generatemaximum effort on command and it
creates mental resilience that,I believe, carries over to
heavy lifting, and so theycomplement each other.
So you notice, all of this isvery much overlapping with
(16:31):
lifting weights and yet it givesyou the benefits of cardio.
So what could be better forlifters?
That's my argument to you.
That's my question is whatcould be better?
Do you see a problem with this?
So I like to use a protocol,now that it's inspired by Brad
Kearns.
He was on the show.
I've actually, you know,googled, researched, used AI to
(16:53):
explore lots of differentprotocols and I could see why
Brad ended up at this particularone.
Because it's just simple, itmakes sense and it does the job,
and he and the way it, the wayit goes, is as simple.
You do four to eight sets of 10to 20 seconds all out, with six
times the rest period.
Okay, hopefully I didn'tconfuse you too much.
(17:15):
So, 10 to 20 seconds.
All out.
And all out literally means allout, like you are hauling ass
at the maximum possible effort.
I mean 99.9%, if not 100%.
If that's possible, all right.
For 10 to 20 seconds, then youtake six times that duration of
rest.
So if you go for 10 seconds,you rest for at least 60 seconds
(17:36):
.
If you're able to go the full20 seconds, you rest for at
least two minutes.
And I say at least you can restlonger.
The whole point is gettingcompletely recovered.
In fact, you might need to resta little longer at first.
And then you do that four toeight times.
And let me tell you, when youdo this the first time, you may
barely get four of those setsand don't try to get a fifth or
sixth.
If your speed is dropping off,you have to go all out.
(17:59):
If you're not going all out,you're done, you're done.
Don't push it, or else you'regoing to get the negative
effects of any other form ofcardio.
You're getting passed into thatstress point.
So, four to eight sets, 10 to20 seconds all out, six, x times
the rest period versus the workperiod.
Now how can you do this?
Do you have to do this on flatground.
No, you could do this on amachine like a bike or
(18:21):
elliptical or even a stairclimber, and I would, in fact,
encourage that initially, whileyou're working up to it, or use
stairs or use a hill, becausethat'll be a lot easier on some
of your joints that aren't usedto this yet your calves, your
shins, your ankles and then workup to the flat ground.
So the way I'm doing it is I'musing a bike twice a week and as
we get towards spring andeverything's starting to thaw
(18:41):
because we still have a lot ofsnow and ice I'm going to be
adapted enough.
I should be able to comfortablybe getting all eight sets.
I'm up to like six or sevenright now because it is that
difficult in a good way, and Iconsider myself pretty fit.
I have a resting heart rate oflike 45, and yet I need to adapt
to this and train for it.
So you know, I'm going to getup to my eight sets twice a week
(19:01):
and then I can incorporate atleast one of those as flat
ground sprinting once a week.
Um, and I picked up somebarefoot footwear for it to give
that a shot.
But cause I would?
I would avoid using likecushioned running shoes, because
that introduces the same kindof problems that you get from
running in those shoes.
So that's what I would do.
I wouldn't do this twice a weekon flat ground like running.
Uh, you know, ground-basedsprinting.
(19:23):
I know we like to call itrunning, but it's not running,
it's sprinting.
I would do at least one ofthose on a machine, or both of
them, and only limit your flatground sprinting to no more than
once a week and give it a shot.
Give you know again if you joinphysique university today for a
free trial and then join ourworkshop tomorrow and, by the
way, the workshop will have areplay, in case you're listening
(19:44):
to this episode and it's toolate for the workshop, which is,
um, tomorrow, tuesday, uh,whatever the date is, I'm sorry
I don't.
I'm recording this ahead oftime, um, but whenever this
episode came out, tuesday at 12PM Eastern, the replay will be
available.
But in that workshop I'm goingto break down how you can
incorporate this into your, yourprogramming, very specifically,
(20:04):
with all the options, with allthe ways to do it, with how to
progress it and all of that.
So today I just gave you thebasics and that's enough to run
with pun intended dad joke tosprint with, I should say.
But in the workshop we're goingto go over the details, all
right.
So one thing that's fascinatingthat people miss about sprinting
is it starts to reframe how youdefine intensity, right.
(20:29):
It's kind of like what happenedto me when I started lifting
weights and I realized that theword intensity in the lifting
community refers to the weighton the bar, not how much you're
pushing it or how much you'resweating or your heart rate goes
up.
So sprinting kind of has asimilar thing.
When you, when you experiencetrue maximal output in a sprint,
it starts to create a.
You experience true maximaloutput in a sprint, it starts to
(20:52):
create a new reference pointfor effort in your training.
That heavy set of squats thatfelt like a 10 RPE might now
feel like an eight.
Think about how mind-blowingand amazingly helpful that could
be because your capacity togenerate force, to recruit
muscle fiber, to push pastperceived limits Remember, some
of this is just mental.
Some of this is just mental.
It all expands your base,expands of your explosiveness,
(21:12):
your power, your perception ofwhat hard is, and that's why
sprinting is not just oh, it'sjust another training tool.
It's a catalyst.
It can enhance everything elseyou do in the gym, right?
You're not just adding morework, which is typically what we
do with cardio.
It's adding the right kind ofwork that amplifies your primary
training goal.
So the last thing I'm going tosay about sprinting for lifters
(21:34):
it's simple and it's efficient.
That's the essence of this show, isn't it?
It's simple and efficient.
You don't need complexprotocols or hours of your time.
A few short, like one or two aweek, which would take maybe 15,
I mean, do the math but 15 to20 minutes tops with all the
rest.
It's mostly rest, let's behonest.
But one or two short focussessions can dramatically
(21:55):
improve your body's ability tobuild muscle, to burn fat, to
generate power.
You are going to feel superathletic, you're gonna feel even
younger than you already arefeeling from lifting weights and
when you program it correctly,it becomes a force multiplier
for everything else you're doingin the gym.
So if you want to take yourtraining and physique to the
next level, now's the perfecttime to join Wits and Weights
(22:16):
Physique University so you getaccess to tomorrow's sprinting
protocol workshop plus freeentry into our upcoming
challenge when you join thisweek.
By the way, these challenges wedo they're going to be mini
challenges about 10 days long.
They're not going to be like anentire month every time, month
after month.
That's going to burn people out.
I'm all about efficiency.
It's 10 days.
We level up one skill.
The first challenge is going tobe about actually steps right.
(22:38):
So we're going to give you somefun ways to level up your steps
not just step count, butdifferent things to try to make
it more fun and interesting partof your life.
So all of this stuff, it's nottheory.
We give you systems, we giveyou support to build your best
physique using these tools.
So you don't have to do chroniccardio, you don't have to
restrict food, all of the thingswe onboard you.
We give you a custom nutritionplan.
(23:00):
We give you monthly workouts,the monthly challenges and tons
and tons of support and greatpeople in there who are super
curious and excited.
So if you're a curious personwho just wants to learn and you
want to get pretty much as mucheducation as you would get in a
nutrition certification, but asa person who just wants to level
up their physique, go towinstonweightscom slash physique
or click the link in the shownotes to join Today.
(23:22):
Two weeks free, free challenge,free workshop.
I'll see you there Until nexttime.
Keep using your wits liftingthose weights and remember that
getting lean doesn't meanendless hours of cardio.
It means training with purposeand with power.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
One of the most common questions I get is what
do I do for cardio or willcardio kill my gains?
Well, forget traditional cardio, hiit workouts or metabolic
conditioning.
There's a form ofhigh-intensity movement that's
completely different, one thatcan complement your strength,
power and muscle developmentwhile accelerating fat loss.
Today, we're uncovering whysprinting true anaerobic
(00:23):
sprinting is the secret weaponfor lifters who want explosive
strength and a leaner physiquewithout compromising their gains
.
You'll learn the science behindwhy sprinting complements
muscle building, while otherforms of conditioning tend to
break it down, and exactly howto implement it to accelerate
your results.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:53):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we are examining why
sprinting belongs in everyserious lifter's training
arsenal.
Let me be clear we are nottalking about cardio jogging or
those exhausting HIIT circuitsthat leave you drained.
We are talking about pure,explosive, anaerobic work, the
(01:16):
kind that triggers muscle fiberrecruitment and hormonal
responses similar to heavylifting.
Even if you've sworn off cardioto protect your gains, the
unique benefits of propersprinting might change your mind
.
Now, before we get into thesebenefits, I want to tell you
about two exciting thingshappening in our Wits and
Weights Physique Universitycoaching program.
First, tomorrow I am hosting alive workshop where I'll break
(01:39):
down my complete sprintingprotocol the exact method I use
with clients to accelerateresults, to improve fat loss, to
get leaner without losingmuscle, and it is really a game
changer.
If you're wondering how toimplement your quote unquote
cardio Plus, we are kicking offour first ever transformation
challenge in the community.
We're going to have monthlychallenges going forward and
(02:01):
when you join WWPU now today,you're going to get free access
to both the workshop and thechallenge and 14 days of access
to sort of kick the tires andsee what it's all about.
So click the link in the shownotes or head to
witsandweightscom slash physiqueto learn all about Physique
University and everything that'sincluded, as well as get free
(02:22):
access for two weeks and you'llhave access to tomorrow's
workshop on sprinting.
As well as get free access fortwo weeks and you'll have access
to tomorrow's workshop onsprinting as well as our first
challenge all the resourcesassociated with that, as soon as
you join.
All right, let's break this downinto three segments when we
cover sprinting today.
First, I'm going to talk aboutwhat most lifters get wrong
about cardio and conditioningand why sprinting is
(02:42):
fundamentally different.
It is its own term, sprinting.
We don't want to confuse thatwith running totally different
things.
And that's the first thing.
Second, we're going to exploreseven research-backed benefits
that make sprinting uniquelyvaluable in and of itself for
anyone focused on buildingstrength and muscle.
This is something I'mpersonally incorporating now
(03:03):
that I wasn't before.
It is a game changer.
It's a level up in my personaleducation, both as a podcaster
and a coach, and also for myclients.
Finally, I'm gonna outline theframework for implementing
sprinting in your trainingwithout compromising your
primary goals.
And again, if you wanna join usfor tomorrow's live workshop in
the Physique University, justjoin today.
Again, you can cancel literallyright after the workshop if you
(03:24):
don't think it's for you, butat least you can be there.
It's live, it's on Zoom, you'llget all the resources, you'll
get the guide and I'm going togo over specific protocols in
much more detail than what I'mcovering today.
All right, let's start with theelephant in the room, which is
this widespread fear of cardioin the lifting community, and
there's either a fear of it, orpeople are doing it wrong, or
(03:45):
they think they have to do a lotof it, or that it's the way to
instigate fat loss.
And I've done other episodesabout cardio itself and the
value of walking as opposed todoing chronic what's called
metronomic cardio like running.
But then we have on the otherside people saying well, I have
heard that too much cardio isgoing to interfere with my
(04:06):
recovery, interfere with mygains, so I'm just not going to
do it at all.
And I think I think the fearisn't entirely unfounded because
traditional cardio trainingthat we are all used to in our
head, which is, you know,excessive, oftentimes
incorrectly in terms of form,especially if you're a runner.
There's a lot of heel striking,cushioned shoes, just terrible
for your joints, for yourrecovery, for muscle tearing.
(04:28):
That can definitely interferewith muscle growth and strength
development, for sure.
And there is solid evidenceshowing that too much endurance
work can elevate cortisol.
Especially when you have theselong sessions and now you're
just taking that cortisol upchronically.
It can create excessivesystemic fatigue and then that
impacts your lifting performance.
You get to the gym and nowyou're sluggish, you're drained,
(04:49):
you can't push as heavy or hard.
It can generate competingadaptation signals to your
muscle development.
So your body's like am I inendurance mode or am I in muscle
building mode and then theyincrease your overall
inflammation and keep youunder-recovered just
indefinitely, so to speak.
Where most people get this wrong, though, is they lump all forms
(05:12):
of conditioning into the samecategory.
Right, they hear cardio andthey immediately think of long
runs and less psyching, thebrutal hit circuits for those of
us who are familiar withCrossFit or F45, and they kind
of destroy you, right, and forsome people, that's a badge of
honor.
Yeah, it killed me, itdestroyed me, I couldn't get up.
That is not a good thing.
Now, this is like saying thatall resistance training is the
(05:32):
same, whether you're doinglightweight, high rep pump work
or heavy compound movements.
No, it's not all the same.
The stimulus matters enormously,and sprinting is fundamentally
different.
It's a unique form of I don'teven know if I call it
conditioning, but it'sdefinitely a specialization that
is missing from a lot of ourrepertoires.
(05:52):
It is not endurance work, right.
It's not even really cardio inthe traditional sense, because,
true, sprinting is a pureexpression of power, right, it's
more like an explosive lift,that concentric on your bench
press or your squat, than aconditioning session, and when
you sprint properly, you'rerecruiting the same type two
muscle fibers that you targetduring heavy squats or deadlifts
(06:15):
, you're actually training yournervous system to generate
maximum force in minimal time.
And, just as a side tangent,look at the physiques of a 100
meter, 200 meter sprinter andcompare that to a long distance
runner.
I'm not saying it's all aboutphysique, but there is a
difference in how the bodyexpresses and develops itself to
(06:35):
support that specialty.
And this distinction is reallyimportant because it completely
changes how your body respondsto training.
Instead of breaking down muscletissue to fuel this long
duration work, you're actuallycreating an anabolic environment
that supports muscle growth andstrength development.
We're going to touch on this alittle bit.
I don't want you to think thatsprinting itself is how you
(06:56):
build muscle, but it supports itand it can complement it in
really almost magical ways.
It's pretty incredible.
So that's why sprinting isdifferent.
Now I want to break down theseven specific benefits that
make it uniquely valuable forlifters.
I'm of a mind now that everyoneshould be doing this.
These are not theoretical.
They're backed by research,they're backed by real world
(07:18):
experience with athletes, withlifters, and so I'm going to go
through each one.
Number one is you can improveyour conditioning very
effectively without muscle loss.
And the first and mostimmediate benefit here is really
related to improved workcapacity, but without any of the
downsides of traditional cardiophosphagen energy system, right
(07:42):
, the ATP-CP, the adenosinetriphosphate, creatine phosphate
system, and that is the sameone you use for heavy lifts as
opposed to your glycolyticglycogen burning system, and so
that means you're going to havebetter recovery between sets
during your lifting sessions.
Because you have this higherwork capacity, you have an
enhanced ability to sustain yourintensity throughout your
(08:03):
workouts and then improvedoverall training capacity, but
without breaking down muscle inthe process.
And I don't want to make itsound like all other forms of
cardio aren't going to help youget conditioned.
I do think you can do low-gradeworkouts, intent, like what
they call low intensity, steadystate cardio, and as long as
(08:23):
it's not running, um, if it'ssomething that's concentrically
focused, like being on a bike orswimming or pushing a prowler,
I still I still can recommendthat to like.
It's not going to necessarilyhurt doing that.
If it's done a couple of timesa week, you know for far less of
the amount of time as you liftweights.
That's still the benchmark.
I still stand by that.
You don't necessarily need todo it.
(08:45):
In fact, I would prefer youjust walk and sometimes make
your walking a little bit harderlike rucking weighted vests,
inclines, walking really fast,things like that than those
other forms of cardio.
And then add sprinting in forits unique benefits.
Trust me, sprinting is its ownthing.
You've got to be doing this.
Number two so okay, so that'snumber one.
It increases your work capacitywithout any of the downsides.
(09:05):
Number two it enhances fat loss.
Okay, and this I used to beskeptical over.
I didn't understand quite whythat would be the case.
But there's a few differentreasons for it.
One has to do with hormones,which we're actually going to
put into a separate category andtalk about in a moment.
For this one, I'm just going tofocus on what they call the
(09:30):
EPOC effect excess post-exerciseoxygen consumption, where your
body stays in a heightenedmetabolic state for hours after
your session.
So this really does kind of comedown to a little bit of a
calorie burn thing, right, kindof like when the benefits of
HIIT that they've said.
Well, with HIIT you can burn alot of calories in a short
amount of time.
The problem with HIIT is youcould push past that fat burning
point into the height, thestress triggering point.
With sprinting you don't get tothat point.
(09:51):
So you're kind of like givingyourself a little bit of a boost
is what I like to think of itand your body will kind of tail
off into that calorie burn longafter you finish, which is
pretty cool.
And then your body's going topreferentially burn fat because
(10:11):
of the mode of the anaerobicmode of training.
And of course, you maintainmuscle mass because you're
triggering strength, notendurance.
So that also enhances fat loss,right.
So all these little sideeffects of sprinting where your
body perceives it as more of astrength activity rather than an
endurance activity, and yet youget the cardio benefits.
Number three is explosive powerdevelopment.
This is where sprinting kind ofstands on its own, other than
(10:32):
dynamic effort type work.
So what I mean by that is foranybody who's used to using
speed work in the gym, where youmight use a submaximal weight
for just a few reps but then youmight do like 10 sets with very
short rest periods and useexplosive force.
It's kind of in that regime,right, but a lot of people are
not doing that in theirprogramming, nor do you
(10:53):
necessarily have to.
But this is definitely wheresprinting shines, because every
sprint is essentially a fullbody plyometric movement.
Right, you're teaching yourbody to generate maximum force
in minimal time, to recruitthose high threshold motor units
, to improve the rate of forcedevelopment, and all of these
directly carry over to yourlifting performance.
(11:14):
I would be interested to see ifyou incorporate sprinting, how
it actually improves potentiallysome of your lifts and
definitely lower body lifts, butjust lifts in general, all
right.
Benefit number four is theoptimized hormonal environment.
So the hormonal response tosprinting is really helpful and
critical.
It's more similar to heavylifting than traditional cardio.
(11:35):
We're talking about increasedtestosterone, growth hormone,
lower cortisol response.
It's like how lifting increasesyour stress and blood pressure
in the moment the acute responsebut it lowers the chronic
response compared to endurancework, whereas endurance activity
excuse me, cardio couldactually ramp that up and
(11:55):
increase your stress.
I know people say well, I runto relieve stress and it's
enjoyable.
That's like saying I drinkalcohol to relieve stress.
It doesn't quite work becauseit actually increases your
chronic stress.
It increases your insulinsensitivity as well, which is
incredible, and that helps withnutrient partitioning and fat
loss and your health markers allaround.
(12:15):
We know blood sugar controlagain same effect as lifting has
, but this is a form of quoteunquote cardio.
So that's benefit number fouris the hormonal environment
hugely beneficial.
Benefit number five is thedirect strength carryover, which
I've already alluded to, but Iwanted to put it in its own item
because the movement patternsin sprinting can enhance your
(12:37):
lifting mechanics for primarilythe lower body lifts.
Think about your hip drive,right, which is critical for
squats and deadlifts, not justthe hip drive, but really the
development systemically of yourbody as a system.
Right, it's a movement pattern.
It's the same reason we like todo full body squats is.
It recruits all the muscles insynchrony, right as an
(13:00):
orchestrated system.
So you think your squats anddeadlifts could potentially be
enhanced.
You get better at what's calledtriple extension your ankles,
your knees, your hips, the threejoints.
When you think compound lift isbecause multiple joints are
involved.
When you do a squat, yourankles, your knees and your hips
are involved and studies haveshown sprinting can improve your
(13:22):
triple extension.
So if you're like, hey, myankles are tight or I don't feel
like I have the range orthey're, you know, my knees have
been bothering me, sprintingmight be able to help with that,
believe it or not, whereasrunning can often have the
opposite effect.
It could really bang up yourknees and ankles, especially the
way most people do it.
And so then you get improvedoverall body coordination and
(13:43):
control.
I mean, look, when you sprint,it is a primal, invigorating
movement that is very human andit puts you, it enhances your
mind muscle connection like fewother things.
And so think about how thatcarries directly over to lifting
.
All right.
Number six the benefit ofsprinting is your recovery
(14:04):
capacity.
Now, this is a little bitdifferent than the work capacity
.
This is recovery betweensessions.
So proper sprinting, it does afew things.
That helps recovery.
And again, it seemscounterintuitive because it's
this very explosive.
It seems like a taxing thingsprinting itself.
But remember, it's extremelyshort, at least the protocol
(14:25):
we're going to talk about.
Stick around.
I'm going to talk about theprotocol in a bit.
It's extremely short and itdoes not go past into that
stressful regime.
So what it does do is itstrengthens your connective
tissue, it improves blood flowwithout creating the excessive
inflammation, and so it helpsyou build your work capacity
gradually and systematically.
And, by the way, when you startsprinting it's pretty much
(14:45):
going to gas you.
You're probably not going to beable to do the full protocol,
trust me, even if you'requote-unquote fit, you may not
be able to handle the fullprotocol on day one.
You're going to work up to itand once you can do the full
number of sets, then you're justgoing to get faster and faster.
That's the way you're going toprogress.
You're not going to add moretime, you're never going to add
(15:06):
more sets.
You're going to get up to sortof the main protocol and then
you're going to get faster andfaster.
And that is I mean, that'salmost, I guess proof that it's
going to improve yourconditioning in that sense.
Only because you're not able todo it as much.
The first session, and then youcan the second, and then better
and better and better.
Right, but anyway, thisenhances recovery capacity
between your lifting sessions,which is why well, not why, but
(15:29):
I like doing sprinting on an offday or on an upper body day
later on, far removed from yourlifting.
And then number seven, the finalbenefit I want to talk about
today is the mental toughnessand power output.
I'm just kind of linking thesetogether.
The psychological demands ofsprinting are unique.
(15:49):
Now that I've done it I'vestarted doing it myself I
recognize that it's its own formof mental resilience because,
say, unlike grinding through along set or a cardio session,
that's a different mental issueor mental challenge Sprinting.
It requires you to becompletely focused for short,
(16:10):
intense bursts, which reminds mea lot of like a single rep of a
very heavy squat, for example.
It requires you to generatemaximum effort on command and it
creates mental resilience that,I believe, carries over to
heavy lifting, and so theycomplement each other.
So you notice, all of this isvery much overlapping with
(16:31):
lifting weights and yet it givesyou the benefits of cardio.
So what could be better forlifters?
That's my argument to you.
That's my question is whatcould be better?
Do you see a problem with this?
So I like to use a protocol,now that it's inspired by Brad
Kearns.
He was on the show.
I've actually, you know,googled, researched, used AI to
(16:53):
explore lots of differentprotocols and I could see why
Brad ended up at this particularone.
Because it's just simple, itmakes sense and it does the job,
and he and the way it, the wayit goes, is as simple.
You do four to eight sets of 10to 20 seconds all out, with six
times the rest period.
Okay, hopefully I didn'tconfuse you too much.
(17:15):
So, 10 to 20 seconds.
All out.
And all out literally means allout, like you are hauling ass
at the maximum possible effort.
I mean 99.9%, if not 100%.
If that's possible, all right.
For 10 to 20 seconds, then youtake six times that duration of
rest.
So if you go for 10 seconds,you rest for at least 60 seconds
(17:36):
.
If you're able to go the full20 seconds, you rest for at
least two minutes.
And I say at least you can restlonger.
The whole point is gettingcompletely recovered.
In fact, you might need to resta little longer at first.
And then you do that four toeight times.
And let me tell you, when youdo this the first time, you may
barely get four of those setsand don't try to get a fifth or
sixth.
If your speed is dropping off,you have to go all out.
(17:59):
If you're not going all out,you're done, you're done.
Don't push it, or else you'regoing to get the negative
effects of any other form ofcardio.
You're getting passed into thatstress point.
So, four to eight sets, 10 to20 seconds all out, six, x times
the rest period versus the workperiod.
Now how can you do this?
Do you have to do this on flatground.
No, you could do this on amachine like a bike or
(18:21):
elliptical or even a stairclimber, and I would, in fact,
encourage that initially, whileyou're working up to it, or use
stairs or use a hill, becausethat'll be a lot easier on some
of your joints that aren't usedto this yet your calves, your
shins, your ankles and then workup to the flat ground.
So the way I'm doing it is I'musing a bike twice a week and as
we get towards spring andeverything's starting to thaw
(18:41):
because we still have a lot ofsnow and ice I'm going to be
adapted enough.
I should be able to comfortablybe getting all eight sets.
I'm up to like six or sevenright now because it is that
difficult in a good way, and Iconsider myself pretty fit.
I have a resting heart rate oflike 45, and yet I need to adapt
to this and train for it.
So you know, I'm going to getup to my eight sets twice a week
(19:01):
and then I can incorporate atleast one of those as flat
ground sprinting once a week.
Um, and I picked up somebarefoot footwear for it to give
that a shot.
But cause I would?
I would avoid using likecushioned running shoes, because
that introduces the same kindof problems that you get from
running in those shoes.
So that's what I would do.
I wouldn't do this twice a weekon flat ground like running.
Uh, you know, ground-basedsprinting.
(19:23):
I know we like to call itrunning, but it's not running,
it's sprinting.
I would do at least one ofthose on a machine, or both of
them, and only limit your flatground sprinting to no more than
once a week and give it a shot.
Give you know again if you joinphysique university today for a
free trial and then join ourworkshop tomorrow and, by the
way, the workshop will have areplay, in case you're listening
(19:44):
to this episode and it's toolate for the workshop, which is,
um, tomorrow, tuesday, uh,whatever the date is, I'm sorry
I don't.
I'm recording this ahead oftime, um, but whenever this
episode came out, tuesday at 12PM Eastern, the replay will be
available.
But in that workshop I'm goingto break down how you can
incorporate this into your, yourprogramming, very specifically,
(20:04):
with all the options, with allthe ways to do it, with how to
progress it and all of that.
So today I just gave you thebasics and that's enough to run
with pun intended dad joke tosprint with, I should say.
But in the workshop we're goingto go over the details, all
right.
So one thing that's fascinatingthat people miss about sprinting
is it starts to reframe how youdefine intensity, right.
(20:29):
It's kind of like what happenedto me when I started lifting
weights and I realized that theword intensity in the lifting
community refers to the weighton the bar, not how much you're
pushing it or how much you'resweating or your heart rate goes
up.
So sprinting kind of has asimilar thing.
When you, when you experiencetrue maximal output in a sprint,
it starts to create a.
You experience true maximaloutput in a sprint, it starts to
(20:52):
create a new reference pointfor effort in your training.
That heavy set of squats thatfelt like a 10 RPE might now
feel like an eight.
Think about how mind-blowingand amazingly helpful that could
be because your capacity togenerate force, to recruit
muscle fiber, to push pastperceived limits Remember, some
of this is just mental.
Some of this is just mental.
It all expands your base,expands of your explosiveness,
(21:12):
your power, your perception ofwhat hard is, and that's why
sprinting is not just oh, it'sjust another training tool.
It's a catalyst.
It can enhance everything elseyou do in the gym, right?
You're not just adding morework, which is typically what we
do with cardio.
It's adding the right kind ofwork that amplifies your primary
training goal.
So the last thing I'm going tosay about sprinting for lifters
(21:34):
it's simple and it's efficient.
That's the essence of this show, isn't it?
It's simple and efficient.
You don't need complexprotocols or hours of your time.
A few short, like one or two aweek, which would take maybe 15,
I mean, do the math but 15 to20 minutes tops with all the
rest.
It's mostly rest, let's behonest.
But one or two short focussessions can dramatically
(21:55):
improve your body's ability tobuild muscle, to burn fat, to
generate power.
You are going to feel superathletic, you're gonna feel even
younger than you already arefeeling from lifting weights and
when you program it correctly,it becomes a force multiplier
for everything else you're doingin the gym.
So if you want to take yourtraining and physique to the
next level, now's the perfecttime to join Wits and Weights
(22:16):
Physique University so you getaccess to tomorrow's sprinting
protocol workshop plus freeentry into our upcoming
challenge when you join thisweek.
By the way, these challenges wedo they're going to be mini
challenges about 10 days long.
They're not going to be like anentire month every time, month
after month.
That's going to burn people out.
I'm all about efficiency.
It's 10 days.
We level up one skill.
The first challenge is going tobe about actually steps right.
(22:38):
So we're going to give you somefun ways to level up your steps
not just step count, butdifferent things to try to make
it more fun and interesting partof your life.
So all of this stuff, it's nottheory.
We give you systems, we giveyou support to build your best
physique using these tools.
So you don't have to do chroniccardio, you don't have to
restrict food, all of the thingswe onboard you.
We give you a custom nutritionplan.
(23:00):
We give you monthly workouts,the monthly challenges and tons
and tons of support and greatpeople in there who are super
curious and excited.
So if you're a curious personwho just wants to learn and you
want to get pretty much as mucheducation as you would get in a
nutrition certification, but asa person who just wants to level
up their physique, go towinstonweightscom slash physique
or click the link in the shownotes to join Today.
(23:22):
Two weeks free, free challenge,free workshop.
I'll see you there Until nexttime.
Keep using your wits liftingthose weights and remember that
getting lean doesn't meanendless hours of cardio.
It means training with purposeand with power.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
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