The Most Powerful Exercise You Stopped Doing

A couple of months ago, I realized I couldn't remember the last time I actually sprinted. I lift consistently, I stay active on my off days, but running as fast as I could was something I probably hadn't done since I was younger.

That bothered me because my goal with training isn't just to have muscle. I want to stay strong, lean, athletic, and capable as I get older. I want to be able to run, jump, move well, and actually use the body I'm building. So I started adding one sprint session per week to my normal training.

I'm still relatively new to sprinting, so this isn't meant to be an advanced sprinting program or a guide to perfect technique. This is simply how I've worked it into my routine as someone whose main focus is still lifting and building muscle.

Why I Sprint

The main reason is that sprinting gives me something my normal lifting, surfing and walking don't.

Walking is great for general activity and cardiovascular health so is surfing, and lifting obviously builds strength and muscle, but neither requires you to move your entire body explosively at high speed.

Sprinting does.

It heavily recruits your fast-twitch muscle fibers, challenges your heart and lungs, trains coordination and explosiveness, and puts a pretty serious demand on your lower body in a very short amount of time.

That's what interested me most. I'm not trying to become a competitive sprinter. I just don't want sprinting, jumping, and moving explosively to become things I used to be able to do.

And the time commitment is tiny. I do this once per week, and the actual hard sprinting portion only takes a few minutes.

Don't Start With All-Out Sprints

If you haven't sprinted in years, I would not go outside tomorrow and immediately try to run as fast as you possibly can.

Your cardiovascular fitness might be decent and you might be strong in the gym, but that doesn't necessarily mean your hamstrings, calves, tendons, and connective tissue are prepared for sprinting.

Give your body some time to adjust.

If you're currently sedentary, I'd start by getting consistent with walking. From there, introduce some easy running. Once running feels normal again, gradually introduce faster efforts instead of jumping straight into max-speed sprints. This could take multiple weeks to get acclimated.

My Sprint Routine

I start with a 10–15 minute walk. I'm simply trying to get warm before asking my body to do anything explosive.

Then I'll spend about 5–8 minutes on a dynamic warm-up. I usually rotate through:

• Butt kicks

• High knees

• Walking and reverse lunges

• Skips for height

• Skips for distance

• Light hops

After that, I gradually increase my running speed instead of immediately sprinting.

I'll do a few ramp-up runs starting around 25% effort, then roughly 50%, and finally around 75%. I'm basically giving my body a chance to experience progressively higher speeds before the actual sprints begin.

Once I feel completely warm, I'll rest for about 2–3 minutes.

Then I do my working sprints.

I start with a light jog and gradually accelerate into a hard sprint. I'm currently running at roughly 95% effort for around 10–15 seconds. I don't obsess over the exact distance because I'm more interested in having a simple setup that I can consistently repeat.

After each sprint, I rest for 2–3 full minutes. I want enough recovery that the next sprint is actually fast instead of turning the session into conditioning.

Right now I'm doing 1-3 working sprint sets.

If you're completely new to this, I wouldn't even start there. Start with one working sprint. The following week, do two. Then three. Over time you can build toward around five quality sprints or just keep it to one. Even one set of sprints a week can provide a huge ROI.

Afterward, I walk for another 5–10 minutes to cool down and I'm done.

How I Fit It Into My Training

I only sprint once per week.

That's enough for what I'm trying to accomplish because lifting is still my priority. I don't want sprinting to interfere with my leg training or recovery, so I treat it like another legitimate training session rather than something I randomly throw in whenever I feel like it.

My basic week is:

Lift → Rest → Lift → Rest → Lift → Sprint/Active Day → Rest

You don't have to follow that exact schedule. The important thing is giving yourself enough recovery and avoiding hard sprints when your legs are already beat up from training.

For me, this has become a really simple way to keep an athletic component in my training without turning my entire routine into athletic performance training.

I'm still trying to build muscle and get stronger. I just also want to make sure that as I get older, I don't become someone who looks fit but hasn't actually moved fast in 20 years.

If you like this approach to training, this is basically the philosophy behind my entire Average To Jacked program.

The goal isn't to make fitness your life. It's to give you a simple structure for lifting, nutrition, cardio, and staying active that you can actually follow long term.

Inside Average To Jacked, you'll get multiple step-by-step workout programs for different experience levels and equipment, along with everything you need on the nutrition side to build muscle, get lean, and maintain it. You'll also get access to the private community where I personally answer questions and help members make adjustments when they need it.

It's a one-time payment with lifetime access, and every future update is included.

You can learn more here Average To Jacked Workout Program