Sprint 8

Are you tired of long monotonous aerobic workouts that seem to have minor results? This Sprint 8 program is a fun, dynamic program designed for all ages!

[rsgfitness] Sprint 8 is a cardio exercise protocol created by Phil Campbell, M.S., M.A., ACSM, FACHE to target and achieve the significant benefits of a maximal release of exercise-induced growth hormone.

Unlike most forms of exercise that are based on exercising slow-muscle fiber, aerobically for long time periods within the endurance energy system, Sprint 8 incorporates numerous studies that show significantly greater benefits in 20 minutes three days a week.

The 20-minute cardio protocol consists of a 3-minute walking warm up and a 2-minute walking cool down. Sounds easy, right? 

In fact, 16 minutes of the program are simply moderate to brisk walking, and this is what is done during the warm up, cool down and during the 90 seconds of "active recovery" walking in between eight, hard and fast, 15 to 30-second sprints.


Start with just two cardio sprints, two days a week, and slowly build up to all eight repetitions, three days a week.

Have bad knees? This workout can be done on a bike, in the pool, cross country skiing, etc.

You can do this routine in front of your house while the children play outside. Measure out 70 meters from one neighbor's mailbox to the other and start sprinting! The walk back to the start is about a 90 second recovery.

In a study conducted in a medical center in 2011, the Sprint 8 protocol reduced body fat by 31 percent in eight weeks without any dieting for the study group of middle-aged healthcare workers, average age 46.

This workout exceeds the body changing benefits of adults injecting growth hormone for anti-aging purposes and athletes injecting growth hormone for performance improvement, which is shown to reduce body fat by 14.4 percent, increase muscle mass by 8.8 percent, and thicken skin by 7.1 percent. While most understand the value of reducing body fat, skin thickening means that it fills in the wrinkles to give a much younger appearance.

The research in 2011 shows that Sprint 8 increases growth hormone naturally with exercise by 771 percent and the benefits of the natural release of this powerful hormone is twice as effective in body fat reduction as injecting growth hormone.

Sprint 8 is not a "Body by Phil, or Body by anyone famous type program," says Sprint 8 creator Phil Campbell. He states:

Sprint 8 is like interviewing the body and asking 'what kind of exercise program should we be doing' and the body is screaming at us through new research that when we do Sprint 8, the body releases this hormone that is the same hormone that makes us grow tall and once we reach our full height, Dr T.C. Welbourne argues it should be called our "fitness hormone,' and Phil Campbell agrees. This is a very powerful hormone that stays significantly elevated for two hours afterwards targeting body fat like a heat-seeking missile, and there are estimates that over 5-million adults inject growth hormone for its anti-aging, body fat reducing benefits. And you can have all of this naturally with the right kind of exercise in 20 minutes, three-times-a-week.

Sprint 8 targets all three muscle fiber types, slow, fast, and super fast fiber. Fast fiber is approximately 50 percent of muscle composition for most people, and it rarely gets used during traditional long-slow cardio exercise. During a short burst of intense exercise lasting 30-seconds or less is when the heart muscle works hard to provide oxygen to all three muscle fiber types and this prepares and conditions the heart muscle to meet the aerobic and the anaerobic demands of life. This form of exercise also works all three energy systems and within this process, the body releases significant amounts of growth hormone.

The 2011 Sprint 8 study surprised researchers when they discovered that the results of the eight-week exercise protocol not only bettered the results of injecting growth hormone, but it also came very close to equaling the results of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs for likely statin users in the study.

The Sprint 8 can be performed many different ways. While Sprint 8 has been the featured cardio program in award-winning Vision Fitness cardio equipment for several years, Sprint 8 can be performed in a classroom by students.

The 20-minute cardio protocol consists of a 3-minute walking warm up and a 2-minute walking cool down. Sounds easy, right? In fact, 16 minutes of the program is simply moderate to brisk walking and this is what is done during the warm up, cool down and during the 90 seconds of "active recovery" walking in between eight hard and fast 30-second cardio sprints.

Start with just two cardio sprints, and slowly build up to all eight repetitions.

To accomplish the 20-minute cardio protocol in the classroom, 4th grade educator, Holly Campbell, daughter of the Sprint 8 creator, uses high knee, standing-in-place plyometrics (running in place with knees coming belt level) followed by walking in a classroom circle for 90 seconds of "active recovery before beginning the next cardio sprint.

I am going to do this the next time the rain forces us to have indoor recess.

Actually, there may be another beneficial hormone released with Sprint 8 that assists with the learning process, dopamine. This is a question Phil Campbell would like to answer in a future study; the impact of Sprint 8 on dopamine release. Dopamine is shown to be important in the regulation of mood.

A preliminary test run on a small number of test subjects revealed that dopamine levels doubled immediately after Sprint 8. Phil Campbell says calls Sprint 8 may prove to be natural Prozac.

Start with just two cardio sprints, and slowly build up to all eight repetitions.
Like adults ordering coffee at the local Starbucks to get the day started or for enhanced focus, children request Sprint 8, "Ms. Campbell, can we please do Sprint 8 today."

Like Phil Campbell says, if we interviewed the body, it's screaming for us to do Sprint 8, perhaps Holly's Campbell's students deserve to be heard, "Ms. Campbell, can we please do Sprint 8 today?"

Read the full article or visit Phil Campbell's website here.


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