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Losing weight and gaining muscle are two major feats in and of themselves, but if your goal is to achieve both at the same time, you’re likely working toward body recomposition. Strength training and intentional nutrition are two vital keys to success, but there’s another secret weapon worth adding to your arsenal: sprinting.
By definition, a sprint is an all-out, maximum effort run over a short distance or time, says Hayley Akradi, CPT, a certified personal trainer at Life Time and the creator of the Body Blueprint Program. “In practice, that means pushing to about 90 to 100 percent of your top speed for 10 to 30 seconds,” she says.
You may have sworn off sprints since high school gym class, but it’s worth lacing up your running shoes again. Aside from boosting cardiovascular endurance, a growing body of research supports that these intense intervals are a leading way to change the ratio of fat to muscle in your body.
Don’t be fooled, though—sprinting alone won’t get you to your goals. Fat loss and muscle gain is largely accomplished in the kitchen, by increasing your protein intake and lowering your overall caloric intake. Without those two changes, sprinting can only help you so much. Once you have your nutrition nailed down (with the help of a dietitian, if you can!), here’s how sprinting can help you reach your body recomp goals.
Meet the experts: Hayley Akradi, CPT, is a certified personal trainer at Life Time and the creator of the Body Blueprint Program launching soon on the LT Digital app. Sara Hayes, is a RRCA-certified running coach and founder of Mindful Miles.
How Sprinting Can Help Stimulate Fat Loss
It can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time. Sprinting is a high-intensity exercise that demands a lot of energy in a short amount of time. Given such, sprinting burns significantly more calories per minute than lower-intensity exercise like jogging, walking, or even traditional high-intensity interval training (HIIT), says Akradi. In fact, thanks to the high caloric burn, sprint interval training results in a 39.59 percent higher reduction in body fat percentage than HIIT, according to a 2024 meta-analysis of several studies in RunRepeat. You’ll also save time while burning more calories because the same study found sprint intervals required 60.84 percent less time than HIIT. It’s a win-win.
It can increase excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. After sprinting, your body requires more oxygen to return to its resting state than walking or jogging, says Sara Hayes, a RRCA-certified running coach and founder of Mindful Miles. This is colloquially known as the “afterburn effect,” but scientifically speaking, it’s called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). “EPOC essentially means your body keeps working hard even after you’re done training, which means your body keeps burning calories during recovery,” Hayes says. As a result, sprint intervals can trigger fat loss by increasing total caloric burn throughout the day, in turn, boosting metabolism, and increasing fat oxidation (the process where the body breaks down fatty acids to produce energy) post-workout, per 2023 research in Physiological Reports.
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It can help build and maintain muscle. Sprinting helps maintain muscle, and can even build some in those that are generally untrained (if you’ve been lifting for several years, don’t expect to see any gains from sprinting). Muscle growth plays a key role in shifting body composition, Akradi says. This is because muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat tissue, ultimately raising your resting metabolic rate over time, she explains. Sprinting activates your entire body, but 2025 research published in Applied Sciences found it’s especially great for engaging the hamstrings and glutes.
It releases fat-burning hormones. Sprinting increases the release of fat-burning hormones like adrenaline, human growth hormone, and testosterone, which creates the perfect storm for body recomposition, according to Akradi. Consistent sprinting can also improve insulin sensitivity (insulin is a hormone used to help regulate blood sugar levels), meaning your body becomes better at using carbohydrates for fuel rather than storing them as fat, per 2020 research in Molecular Basis of Disease.
How Sprinting Impacts Your Metabolism
“In the short term, sprinting demands a high level of energy, so your metabolism spikes, but over the long term, sprinting encourages more muscle mass, and more muscle means a higher resting metabolic rate,” Hayes explains.
EPOC also comes back into play here. The intensity of sprinting requires your body to burn more calories post-sprint to restore oxygen levels and repair muscle tissue, raising metabolism for hours, per 2024 research in Scientific Reports. So, put simply, consistent sprinting helps your body become more efficient at burning energy, even when at rest.
Does sprinting build and maintain muscle?
Sort of. Sprinting is essentially explosive resistance training using your own body weight, so every sprint activates your glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and core, allowing you to maintain muscle, and even potentially build some if you’re body is not used to resistance training, Hayes says.
Speaking of, sprinting is a great complement to traditional resistance training. “Sprinting and strength work are a perfect pair because strength training builds your foundation, and sprinting adds power and speed, so together, they increase lean muscle, boost coordination, and promote metabolic efficiency,” she says. Sprints and strength training work hand-in-hand to support each other: more strength means stronger sprints, and stronger sprints reinforces movement patterns that support lifting and athletic movement.
The intensity of sprinting also trains your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which your body recruits when you need to execute quick, explosive movements, Akradi says. “These fibers produce force quickly but fatigue fast, so training them builds muscle density and strength, while also preserving muscle mass as you age.”
How does sprinting differ from steady state jogging when it comes to muscle growth? I’m glad you asked. “Steady-state cardio primarily recruits slow-twitch fibers and burns fewer calories per minute, so while it supports endurance and cardiovascular health, it doesn’t offer the same muscular stimulus or post-exercise metabolic boost,” Akradi says. “Sprinting, in contrast, challenges fast-twitch fibers, preserves or builds muscle mass, and stimulates more hormonal activity.”
Both have their place in a well-rounded fitness routine, but if your goal is body recomposition, Akradi says sprinting is more efficient.
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How To Incorporate Sprinting Into Your Workout Routine
Whether you’re up for a standalone sprint workout or implementing a few intervals as a finisher, start conservatively. “Consistency matters more than volume, so it’s about quality over quantity,” Akradi says.
And there’s good news: Even if sprinting isn’t your favorite workout but you still want to reap the benefits, Akradi says just four to six all-out sprints can drive results. “If you’re looking for the bare minimum but still want to see results, I recommend sprinting one to two times per week with four to six intervals at 15 to 30 seconds each.”
To get you started, Akradi programmed the below sprint workout that can be done on its own or as the cherry on top of a strength training session.
Pro tip: Save your sprints for upper body days. Running on fresh legs will lessen your chance of injury. If you have to tack it to the end of your leg day, that’s okay—just be cautious of how hard you go on already tired legs.
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Warm-up (about 5 to 7 minutes)
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Dynamic stretching and two to three gentle accelerations
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Sprint intervals (about 7 to 11 minutes)
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Four to six rounds:
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15- to 30-second sprint (give 90 to 100 percent effort)
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90-second walk or slow jog between each interval
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Cooldown (about 5 minutes)
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Easy walk and full body stretching
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