Here's the ONE exercise you should do while the gym is closed

What if I told you that there was an exercise that would pack on muscle, strip fat, increase power and strength all just using your own bodyweight? Sounds too good to be true right, but this often forgotten exercise for weight trainers is a goldmine and one which could be utilised right now with the gym closures, the exercise - sprinting.

Now I don’t mean a fast jog, or a 400m fast run, I mean an all-out less than 15 seconds as quick as you can possibly go sprint. Have you ever seen an out of shape 100m runner? That may be an unrealistic comparison to the average gym-goer, but look back to your school days. The kids who were naturally the quickest, who would gas everyone on sports day were generally in great shape compared to their peers.

Now speed and power obviously have genetic components, but it can be improved upon by everyone. World-class sprinters would be considered some of the most powerful athletes on the planet, Usain Bolt’s 100m world record of 9.58s resulted in a speed of 10.4m/s - unbelievably quick. Now although we won’t be running that quick, a 100m time of 15 seconds, which is achievable for most results in a speed of 6.66m/s. There are only a few other exercises I can think of that get us moving that quick, even when taking into account the low load being used. When using sprints to improve power, keep the distance short (10m-30m) and the rest high (2-3 mins) - you don’t want to be out of breath.

Sprinting utilises our body the way it was supposed to be used, we're bipedal creatures, and our contralateral arms and legs were designed to work in unison with one another. Heck, why do you think we have oblique slings? Our usual saggital plane gym exercises rarely take this into account and challenge our sling systems.

Speaking of planes of motion, sprinting challenges our transverse plane muscles unlike any other exercise due to the large rotational forces being placed upon the body from the propulsion of our arms and legs. If you haven’t sprinted in a long time, you’ll feel it in your abs the next day.

Lastly, sprinting works many of the body’s joints in full ranges of motion. It requires the shoulder complex, the hips, knees, and ankles to work through full extension and full flexion. This is good news for Olympic weightlifters who don't have at-home gyms, there may be an exercise that allows you to keep improving. Weightlifting relies on powerful triple extension of hips, knees, and ankles, so sprinting may have potential carryover.

There is also another option if you don’t feel comfortable sprinting all out, or if you want to ease yourself into it - Hill Sprints. Now what the incline is going to do is it’s going to limit your speed, which in turn is going to limit joint forces and may reduce injury risk. The steeper the hill, the more it’s going to slow you down. Another added benefit of hill sprints is that they may also increase your ankle flexibility as a result - due to the incline, more ankle dorsiflexion will be needed - which is great news for us squatters with poor mobility.

Before you go out and sprint - especially if you haven’t done it in a while - I want you to warm up fully, more than you think you need to. Focus on hamstring and hip flexor mobility and activation and do 3-5 sets of warm-up, lower intensity sprints working up to your first working set.

So what are you waiting for? Just get out there, don’t worry about technique, just sprint 5-15 seconds, 2-3 minutes rest between sprints, repeat 6-10 times. Effective doesn’t mean it can’t be simple.