Swapping gruelling stints at the gym for minute-long sprints could be the key to living longer, protecting against heart disease and boosting brain health.
Professor Katie Hirsch, an exercise science expert at the University of South Carolina, believes that sprinting is one of the best things you can do to protect your heart.
Because it is high impact, sprinting usually involves short but intense efforts lasting anywhere between 15 seconds to a minute, followed by periods of active recovery.
Whilst this isn’t a miracle shortcut for weight loss, it is thought that sprinting can lead to greater fat burning at rest compared to sustained exercise endurance.
‘You are really maxing out your systems when sprinting and that creates a big driver for adaptation,’ Prof Hirsch told National Geographic.
This style of high intensity interval training (HIIT) has previously been shown to boost V02 max—a measure of how much oxygen the body can process during exercise.
A high V02 max is associated with better physical fitness and lower risk of cardiovascular disease, indicating that the body is efficiently extracting and using oxygen from the blood.
But, experts say the benefits don’t stop there.
According to experts, this high-intensity one minute work out offers a plethora of health benefits from protecting your heart to warding off age-related memory decline
‘As we age, we tend to lose muscle fibres in both size and volume, which is a problem’, Professor Heather Vincent, director of the Health Sports Performance Center at the University of Florida, explained.
Over time this can cause serious problems such as lower back pain, increased risk of broken bones and sciatica.
But, according to Prof Vincent, spriting can help preserve these fibres—responsible for speed and power—that are often under-utilised in day-to-day activities leading to better agility and range of movement in later life .
Sprinting is also one of the few cardiovascular exercises that supports bone density, particularly in areas like the spine and hips, she added.
This is a phenomenon known as Wolfe’s Law. When someone sprints they are applying high rates of force on the ground through contracting and relaxing their muscles, which pull on the bones.
It is this stress that has a direct effect on bone density increase.
However, Prof Vincent warned: ‘It is not necessarily a replacement for strength training but what it can do is promote maintenance of muscle size and muscle power.’
Prof Hirsch agreed saying: ‘Weights are still your best stimulator of muscle, but sprinting does stimulate muscle better than any kind of steady state cardio, like a long run or walk.’
But both experts agreed that jogging is the best starting point, before adding sprint intervals into your exercise routine.
‘For the first few weeks, your sprint might be around 70 to 80 percent of maximum, so you let the body condition,’ Prof Vincent suggested.
‘Each time you exercise, your body adapts a little bit and becomes more durable and tolerant.’
Whilst exercise has been proven to boost mental health, experts are now saying that sprinting could actually help slow down cognitive decline, associated with dementia.
Prof Vincent said: ‘There’s now some data to show that sprinting or high-intensity exercise can actually help control some age-related decline, like in Alzheimer’s disease.
She added: ‘It’s that high blood flow that comes from the sprinting that appears to be really beneficial.’
Earlier this year, Spanish researchers discovered that adults who increased their activity levels to around two and a half hours a week, between the ages of 45 and 65, were less prone to one toxic protein, amyloid, spreading in the brain.
Significant clumps of this protein, as well as another—tau—can form plaques and tangles.
This is thought to be behind the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia.
It comes as a landmark study last year also suggested almost half of all Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented by tackling 14 lifestyle factors.
To reduce dementia risk throughout life, the commission also made 13 recommendations for both people and governments.
These include making hearing aids available for all those who need it, reducing harmful noise exposure, and increased detection and treatment access for high cholesterol among the over-40s.
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