Be Well Workout of the Week: Torch Calories By Sprinting Your Fastest Mile

Todor Tsvetkov/iStock.com

The perfect post-Labor Day Weekend workout to get you back on track after a weekend of over-indulging goes as follows: This week we will start with a quarter-mile all-out sprint. No big deal, right? But by the end, you will have run — well, sprinted — an entire mile. Pretty impressive! (Go, you!)

There are no excuses with these sprints, because they can be done on the treadmill, elliptical, bike, or outside. And the workout isn’t just sprinting — while you recover from each sprint, you’ll work through the series of exercises below before running once again. Challenge yourself to complete four rounds of this workout as fast as you can to get the most out of this workout. On your mark, get set, GO!

Be Well Workout of the Week: Torch Major Calories with This Sprinting Circuit Workout

Instructions: Sprint it out and then complete the exercises below. Run through the circuit four times to hit your sprinted mile mark. 

.25-mile sprint
20 squat jumps
20 push-ups
20 sit-ups
20 lunge jumps (Single count)
20 plank rows (Single count)
20 squat with overhead press

Explanations of exercises:
Click links for how-to videos. 

Squat jumps: Stand with feet hip-width apart and perform a squat, dropping your rear until your knees are just behind your toes and your hamstrings are parallel to the floor. As you stand, propel yourself upwards and jump. Return to standing and squat again.

Push-up: Start lying face down with your chest on the floor, with hands facing forward and palms down in line with your shoulders; elbows should be pointing back. Push up until arms are extended (the inside of the elbow should be facing forward) and drop back down.

Sit-up: Lie on your back with feet on the floor and knees bent. Put your hands behind your ears. Without pulling on your neck and using only your abs, lift your shoulders off the mat and come to a full sit-up position. Lie back down slowly.

Lunge jumps: Position yourself in a lunge. Jump upwards switching the front and back legs. Once landed, repeat. For more of a challenge, hold the weights you used for your reverse fly during your jumps.

Plank rows: In a push-up position with your hands on free weights, row one weight up and back, keeping your hips square to the floor and squeezing your shoulder blade. Lower and repeat on the other side.

Squat with overhead press: Hold free weights at your shoulders, and do a squat. As you stand back up, press the weights over your head.  Return them to your shoulders as you squat back down.

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Audrey McKenna Hasse is the owner of A.M.Fit, a personal training and healthy consultation business on the Main Line. You’ll find her workouts every week right here on Be Well Philly.

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