The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

183. How Sprinting Can Boost Your Fitness Routine (Even When You’re Not a Runner)

• Kristy Castillo

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Lately, I’ve been bringing something back into my routine that I haven’t done much of in years… SPRINTING!


Nope - not distance running or marathons, but good old-fashioned, short bursts of speed. 


I used to LOVE running back in the day! These days, I’m all about doing what feels good and supports MY body. Right now, that looks like sprinting (along with my regular lifting workouts).


Here’s the thing - what worked in your 20s probably won’t work in your 30s, and what worked in your 30s, won’t cut it in your 40s. As we evolve, so do our routines. Sprinting is simple, free, AND time-efficient (we can all use more of that, right?!)


It doesn’t have to be a whole “thing” that feels complicated and stresses you out - just get outside and move your body!


Listen to your body, find a pace that feels good, and have FUN with it. I’d love to hear how you feel when you add sprinting to your fitness routine!!


In this episode, we cover:

  • My real thoughts on running (and why I’m not trying to be a “runner”)
  • Why your health routine has to evolve as you age
  • Simple ways to add sprinting or jogging into your daily life
  • How HIIT training supports your health goals
  • What the EPOC effect is + why it matters for fat loss


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take. Let's go, hey guys, what's?

Speaker 2:

up. Welcome to today's episode. I want to just talk to you today about something that I have incorporated more recently into my workouts and to my life. I don't know, I don't really know what I've incorporated into, but I have been doing lately and that is sprinting. So I just want to talk about this kind of briefly. There's a lot that could be said about sprinting. Obviously, like I could go into the effects of HIIT, and maybe I'll do that on a longer Tuesday episode, but I really wanted to talk to you just kind of short, sweet, spicy, and I want to encourage you to try it.

Speaker 2:

A lot of us think we are not runners, we can't sprint, we can't run, we can't jog, we can't all the things. Right, I'm not a runner, I don't like running or whatever it is. I hear all the things, of course but I want to encourage you to start sprinting. It's, dare I say, kind of easy in the sense that, honestly, you could just go out and jog. You could, I mean, start walking right and then get into a little bit of a jog and then maybe that jog will turn a little bit faster into a run and then that running kind of turns into sprinting. So if you're like no, literally I can't go sprint right now, I would probably fall down. Okay, then just go out for a walk. Or, while you're already out for your walk, just jog a little bit, and then you don't. I'm not saying like start jogging and then start running and then sprinting, like in that same, in that same motion, and that's on that same day. I'm saying, you know, just start, start slowly and increase over time is what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 2:

But I, I am not a runner. Okay, I would not say that I'm a runner. Well, I used to be. I don't know what that even means. I'm a runner. What's a runner? Someone that runs. I mean, I guess in that sense, I do run on occasion, so I'm an occasional runner. I don't know what that means, but I wouldn't say I'm a runner. I'm more of a lifter. But I do enjoy running. Honestly, I always have I've talked about this earlier in the podcast, I guess about how I used to run and try to get the body that I wanted, which is kind of the body that I have now, which I can't achieve through running, but I do enjoy running.

Speaker 2:

I ran track and cross country in high school. I did 5Ks with my dad and my dad was a cross country coach, k's with my dad and my dad was a cross country coach, and running was just something that I really liked. I enjoyed being able to go out by myself, airpods in probably weren't AirPods back then headphones in, but I always did like running. I liked pushing myself. I liked honestly just stopping whenever I wanted to stop because no one was there to tell me not to, except in cross country, of course. Then I had to train for something. But I'm talking about, like, after I had my daughter at least I remember going out for runs and just even before I had her, when my husband and I were married no kids, you know I'd go out for a run and just run through town or whatever.

Speaker 2:

Like, I do enjoy running. I don't enjoy the pressure of it. I don't enjoy trying to run for time. I don't. I'm not competitive, so I don't give a shit if someone's beating me, but I do enjoy running. I love going to the track. I love, you know, just running a 100, jogging a 100, running a 100, or maybe trying to, you know, run a 400 and then walk a 400, whatever. Like, I just love going out and running and moving my body. There's, quite honestly, nothing like a runner's high, like it is just a different feeling and I do enjoy it.

Speaker 2:

But I understand there are a lot of you that don't. I want to encourage you to do it anyway, because I obviously know a lot about running. There's HIIT training, right, which is more of the sprinting part of this, and I guess how I want to kind of tailor this episode is I'm 44 years of age. Okay, like in my 40s, you know what you do in your 20s won't work in your 30s. What you do in your 30s won't work in your 40s. What you do in your 40s won't work in your 50s.

Speaker 2:

Perhaps your body is ever-changing. Your life is ever-changing. Perhaps your body is ever-changing. Your life is ever-changing. This journey is ever-changing and my 40s have been a pivot for me and it's taken me longer in my 40s to get a grasp on this pivot than it has in other years. Pivoting to my 30s and inside of my 30s. Yeah, I had to make changes to my fitness and my food and figure things out, but these 40s have been rough. Okay, perimenopause life, just getting a little bit older, having these blood pressure issues, like what the fuck? But I'm still here and figuring it out, and sprinting is something that I know a lot of you are like me.

Speaker 2:

I get a lot of messages saying I don't have time, which I previously discussed and yeah, time is not readily available. We do have to make time. That you don't have time, which I previously discussed, and yeah, time is not readily available, we do have to make time. That you don't have time, right. You don't have money to spend on new gym equipment or all these things, right? So sprinting is something that it's free and it takes less time than even walking, which is something I want to talk about here in a second is why I've really grown to In terms of sprinting. I think you should try it and there are really easy ways to incorporate sprinting into your day. I want to say this also because in this episode, I just want to talk honestly, very freely, about it and kind of my thoughts on all of these things, because, yeah, a lot of times we do say that we don't have time, and that is true. Like a lot of us don't have time, we have to make time, but even that time that we make, it goes fast and it's a small amount of time.

Speaker 2:

So what I have noticed and this is a duh moment, but I've been running a little bit more. I've been posting that on my stories. I've been out running, sprinting, jog, whatever the heck I want to do, and my daughter and I got our new running shoes and we've started running a little bit more. So, obviously, as I'm running and just doing whatever running, jogging, sprinting, whatever it all kind of falls into that category, because I literally do whatever I want I go out for my walk and I think, okay, here's my step goal for this walk. I'm not going home until I get this amount of steps and I get those steps in faster. Duh, if I run, if I sprint, because I'm doubling my speed. So I'm doubling the speed at which I hit my 10k steps.

Speaker 2:

So if you are already on a time crunch and you're like I don't have time to get my 10k steps in, well, perhaps we jog a little bit or perhaps we do some sprints while we're out there, because those steps are going to accumulate so much faster. So that was one thing that I noticed. I'm like I'm out here just like looking at my Oura ring to check how many steps I've gotten in after like 10, 15 minutes or whatever, to see what pace I'm on, like, how long is this going to take me? Do I need to run or am I good walking? Like I don't want to spend all day out here trying to get these steps, but I got to get them. So what does this look like? And I'm like man, I am just. These steps are just piling up so much faster, like I've really liked running for that reason. Or at night, if I'm like I need 3000 steps, that's a 30 minute walk or a 15 minute sprint jog run, whatever the hell. Right, it's a lot faster. So I've really liked that piece.

Speaker 2:

So I wanted to mention that because a lot of us I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have an hour to go out Cool, take 20 minutes and do some sprint walk, sprint walk, sprint walk. Also along those lines it is free. You just put on some shoes and you put in your AirPods, headphones, whatever, and you go outside and you just either one go for a walk free, you go for a jog free, you increase that speed and then you're kind of running free and then you sprint a little bit free. So I love that it's free, because a lot of people don't have a lot of money or a lot of room to put into a home gym or even gym membership whatever. You don't need any of that stuff.

Speaker 2:

One thing I do love is a weighted vest, and I have not worn my weighted vest to run in yet, but I'm getting close. I do wear it to walk, I do wear it sometimes for my workout and it's a 12-pound weighted vest. The link is actually on my Instagram If you go to my highlights, highlight bubbles underneath my bio. There's a story in there with a link to the weighted vest that I have. It's just from Amazon and I really like it. So I walk with that, work out with that, because it adds more weight to my body. The more weight I have on my body, the more energy my body is taking to carry that weight around, therefore burning some calories. So I do like that.

Speaker 2:

I thought the other day I'm going to next time I go run that I feel good. I just I feel good, my blood pressure or whatever, like, I just feel okay, I'm going to wear it to go walk and try to do some sprints in it or at least some jogging in it, just because it's going to increase the difficulty of that, and so I really like that. But I mean, no, the weight vest is not free, but that is a way to not have to get all this gym equipment and also it's going to take more muscle recruitment from your legs to be able to carry this weight around, right? So you need a pair of running shoes. I mean, you know, shoes to run in. That would be great. It's nice to have running shoes because they are good for your feet and you are going to be on your feet a lot. It's nice to have running shoes because they are good for your feet and you are going to be on your feet a lot, obviously if you're running, and that does matter. So a good pair of running shoes is good. A weighted vest is great, even just for walking, especially just for walking. Actually, like I said, I haven't even ran in my weighted vest yet, but I'm thinking that would be. I'm just going to experiment with that, ok. And then another thing I want to say is don't overthink it. Say is don't overthink it.

Speaker 2:

I have been adding to Fit Club and I'm going to be starting soon another kind of for the summer. We're going to be doing a little less lifting and more sprinting, because I really think this is so helpful. A lot of you are like my age or going through things that you know perimenopause, menopause, high blood pressure, sicknesses, health issues, like literally just struggling with whatever and we need to make things short on time, and this is something that has helped my body physically as I'm going through this change where I'm gaining fat faster and I'm losing muscle faster than ever because I'm just getting older. I've had to adjust some things, and this is one thing that adjusting lifting four days a week instead of five or six and then sprinting like three days a week has been a total game changer.

Speaker 2:

Hiit sprinting is really really good. Well, hiit, slash sprinting. Hiit is also good for visceral fat loss. So visceral fat is that's the area around our abdomen where we store fat as we get older. We're like man I'm really gaining this belly fat. I can't get it off right. This is a really good way to combat that and I'm finding that for myself every day that I sprint. I look in the mirror right A couple of days later and I'm like okay, my abs are looking better. I'm losing fat around my midsection. I can tell on my stats, on my Renfro scale, that my visceral fat is going down. It's really really good. We have that subcutaneous fat, we have visceral fat and we need to target it in different ways.

Speaker 2:

Don't overthink this, though. Okay, some quick, quick ways, because people are like well, how long do I sprint? Honestly, I started not caring and still I don't care. I will either go out and do whatever I want, because I told my husband yesterday I was like I'm going to go out and walk, run whatever till I get these steps in. And he's like oh, what's your routine? Ask me something like that. And I'm like I necessarily just do whatever I want. I start running when I want to, I stop running when I want to. It takes the pressure off and it's so much more fun with no routine, no one telling me what to do, here's when to go and stop. It's none of that. It's just me being like I want to sprint now, I'm tired now, and that keeps it fun.

Speaker 2:

But some other ways that I do when I do want to keep track is sprinting for 10 seconds, rest for 30. Do that 6, 8, 10, 12 times and you're good. Or pick a tree or a pool or a mailbox or something. I have a trail that I run on and I this is more for I'll either sprint, yeah, find something close and just sprint to that item, that object, and then walk back to where I was, sprint there again, walk back. That's fine, there's no magic in the number, in the timing, okay. But you want to keep the sprints short. So sprint up a hill, walk back down, do that 6, 8, 10, 12 times. Find an object, sprint to it, walk back, do that 6, 8, 10, 12 times. So sprinting needs to be like 10 seconds or less on 30 seconds off right, let's keep it 10, 30,. Actually that's a good number.

Speaker 2:

As far as like my little jogs, like my jog sessions, I will. There's an item, there's a trail that I run on. There's a pole at the end of this trail and I will run to it at no certain speed. I don't care, I will just run as kind of as fast as I can. Then I'm like, oh, I'm getting tired, I'm going to slow down a little bit because literally I'm doing whatever I want. But I run to that pole. It takes me about a minute and 30 seconds, and then I walk back. That takes me about three minutes. I timed it the other day, so that's a good kind of running, guess, I mean, unless you just want to run and run and run and run for 10, 15 minutes, that's fine. But you're going to burn more fat, burn more calories if you're running really fast for a little bit of time and then recovering.

Speaker 2:

The reason for that is because of something called an EPOC effect. This is also kind of known as the afterburn effect. If you've heard people talk about sprinting in the afterburn or lifting really heavy in the gym in the afterburn, it's called the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. So basically what this is is obviously sprinting or something. At very, very high intervals it causes a temporary increase to our oxygen demand which requires your body to work harder to return to its resting state. So this process and it working harder to return to its resting state, it burns extra calories in that process. So that is essentially the benefit.

Speaker 2:

This very, very short explanation of why, why. That is why we don't just want to go run for 10 minutes straight. Well, I shouldn't say we don't want to the benefits of there are benefits of both. But when I'm talking about burning visceral fat and sprinting and honestly just going out working as hard as you can, resting, working as hard as you can, resting that work as hard as you can spot. That's causing your body to require extra oxygen. And yeah, when you're jogging it does too, but it's not the same thing. You know that If you are sprinting as hard as you can, that's going to require your body to be like I need some extra air. If you're just jogging or running slowly, like I am, to that pole for a minute and 30 seconds, I'm not as tired. So there's a huge difference and a huge benefit to rowing for 10 seconds as fast as you can, rollerblading as fast as you can for 10 seconds, running as fast as you can, rollerblading as fast as you can for 10 seconds, running as fast as you can, biking as fast as you can. You want to do it as hard and as fast as you can for that 10 seconds, or up the hill or to that certain item object, and then you want to recover fully before you do it again, because the point is for you to go all out. So I hope you really enjoyed this. I hope that you're going to go sprint.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited because I just I've been wanting to talk about this for a little while, because I've been playing with it for a little while and I wanted to kind of figure out how to introduce this to everybody. I've been talking about it on Instagram a little bit and, of course, there'll be a post correlating with this subject, either on Unfuck, your Fitness podcast on Instagram or Krista Castillo Fit on Instagram, because I want to explain it. But honestly, I don't want to talk that much about it, unless you want me to, because a lot of there's so much information on the internet. There's an overconsumption, and then we overanalyze it and then we don't take action. What I want to tell you is I've been loving it, but that's not enough for someone, an influencer, to say I've been doing this and it's been changing my body and I love it. Well, why? Why is it working? What's causing it? Which is why I want to break that down a little bit.

Speaker 2:

And then also, how do you do it? I don't just want to say like go sprint. I want to give you a little bit of guideline in there, but it doesn't need to be overthought, it doesn't need to be overconsumed. Just lace up your shoes, turn on some crazy songs and go run for 10 seconds and then walk for 30. And then, if you do that six times, then pick an item or an object and go run for that long and then walk back. Just make it fun. Make it different every single time I am going to in Fit Club, be putting some more sprinting activities in there, because I do know when you're out and about. Maybe you're not like me and you don't just like to pick an object, okay, but I think that you should. Let me just say I think that you should, because, god forbid, we don't have a structure or God forbid, we don't have a timer. You need to be able to just go find a hill or go find an object or count to 10 while you're running, while you're sprinting, and then walk to 30, right Walk until you count to 30. Like, make it so simple that you can do it without a timer, without an app.

Speaker 2:

But I am going to be switching things up for summer. So join us. If you need a program to follow, you can join at any time. You get instant access to the workouts. I'll calculate your macros. You'll have some sprints in there. With timers, you'll have four to five workouts a week. I'm going to describe everything for the summer and we're really going to be incorporating this because getting our visceral fat levels down is important. Sprinting is important, moving our body is important, working hard is important and as we age, this is important.

Speaker 2:

I will say I did struggle with this, with, like, when my autoimmune issues flare up or when my blood pressure flares up, and there will be days when you're like, no, my body the other day I was running and my hip was like my hip literally said no, nope, we're not going to do this. And I think I had just sprinted too many days in a row. And of course I was doing workouts and I need to figure out a routine. But you'll know, your body will say your legs will say no, I'm too tired to do this today. We need to walk, christy, and that's fine.

Speaker 2:

And then I stopped and I walked. So just don't overthink it. But I think this is going to be really fun for us to do together. We'll have some challenges over in Fit Club and just get you guys into it Because you can can. Just because we're quote unquote not runners, doesn't mean we can't run, okay. So let's all look crazy sprinting around our town Towns like crazy people, but we'll be in it together. So I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at ChristyCastilloFit. I will see you next time. Bye.