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Do you find yourself daydreaming of hills, stairs, and bleachers? Do you feel a need for speed?

If so, sprint training may be the workout for you. Sprint training will give you a fantastic workout and improve your overall aerobic capacity. It will also improve your heart health.

One benefit of sprint training is the need for little equipment. A good stopwatch and well fitting running shoes are all that you need to begin. You can even skip the stopwatch if you want to count each step.

All sprint training begins with warm ups. This is not time consuming and can save you from later injury. Jogging in place for 1 minute and energetic body stretches should be all you need to prepare your body for sprinting.

Energetic stretches, like torso twists and arm and leg swings will set your muscles up for the short distances you are about to sprint. Now that you are warmed up you will want to “sprint your plan”.

All sprint training includes short bursts of speed interspersed with periods of slower activity. Your goal should be to run at a faster speed while exerting less energy.

During this, the actual sprint portion of your training, you will want to sprint for a short distance and then stride for the same distance. You can repeat this as many times as needed to get in a good workout.

For example, if you are doing a 200m sprint, during sprint training you will want to sprint for 100 meters and stride for 100 meters and work yourself up to longer sprints.

Between sprints it is always a good idea to take a two minute rest period. This can be accomplished with a slow and steady jog. After you have completed all of your reps you must cool down.

You can do this by jogging or walking a short distance and stretching again to allow your muscles to return to their resting state and help you avoid injury. Sprint training uses all of the oxygen in your muscles and this cool down will help your muscles breathe again.

Without a cool down you may find yourself nauseous or lightheaded.There are a few tips to keep in mind when sprint training. You may use your arms to increase your speed by pulling them forward as you sprint.

You will also want to keep your muscles relaxed. Tensed muscles can lead to sore muscles, a condition you want to avoid. And in order to have your body operating at its best, do not eat or drink in the hour before you begin your training.

Sprint training, short and fast bursts of running, has proven better exercise than long jogs. Distance runners can become very frustrated when they see the results sprinters achieve in a much shorter time period.

After a few weeks of sprint training you will see incredible improvements in balance, posture and your core muscle tone. So don’t be daunted by those hills and stairs of your dreams, you can conquer them!

Resources: Richard Black helps people learn about basketball conditioning workouts at his website on basketball workouts.