Let’s get this right out of the way. Both lunges and sprinting are perfect exercises for burning fat and they should both be incorporated into your training, but we are here to compare them to each other to choose a winner, sort of speak.
They both also have their separate uses when it comes to sport-specific training or strength vs cardio, but our only goal with this article is to determine which of the two will give you the most value for your time when it comes to burning fat.
So, lets dive right in.
SPRINTS
Sprints are perhaps the most commonly practiced anaerobic exercise in sports (short duration, high intensity, long rest) but yet when people stop playing they also stop sprinting.
You’ve most likely heard it before, but we’ll say it again, there is a reason why sprinters have a lot of muscle mass and a very low body fat percentage while marathon runners do not possess these attributes.
“A Canadian study found that trained individuals who did six 30-second all-out sprints with 4 minutes of rest between sets lost an impressive 12.4% body fat after spending less than .75 of an hour actually sprinting.
An aerobic group (jogging, cardio) only lost 5.8% body fat but they spent a whopping 13.5 hours training.”
Poliquingroup.com
“Sprinting also promotes fat loss and increases your metabolic rate for several days after the workout, a phenomenon known as the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect. EPOC — also known as “afterburn” — allows you to continue burning calories long after the workout is over.”
Webmd.com
LUNGES
Just like sprints, lunges also give you a phenomenal workout in a very little amount of time as well as increase your metabolism and burn fat for days after…if they’re weighted.
If you are doing simply bodyweight lunges then sprinting is superior, but where things get interesting is when you add a bit of weight.
Unlike sprints you can add a good deal of weight to your lunges and consistently increase the intensity of your routine in this way.
And along with this you can increase your time under tension which leads to additional fat loss.
“For example, a 2012 study found that training a longer tempo of 4 seconds down and 1 second up burned more calories and produced a greater excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) than a tempo of 1.5 seconds for both the up and down phases.”
Poliquingroup,com
The most common form of lunge workouts for best overall muscle building and fat loss is a lunge for distance such as a 400m weighted walking lunge.
For anecdotal evidence on the results you can achieve from walking lunges, take a look at Cory Gregory here (below).
He is the biggest supporter of walking lunges in the fitness community as he does 400m weighted walking lunges every single day and he has the athletes he trains do the same.
THE WINNER
LUNGES.
Hypothetically, If you could only choose one of these two movements to do for the rest of your life we would choose lunges for a couple of reasons.
- Time required: you can do 400m of weighted walking lunges in 7-15 minutes.
- Muscle gain: you can progressively overload your lunges by adding weight and slowing things down to create more time under tension.
- Less chance of injury: if you are not familiar with sprinting form and stretching protocols then you could potentially strain your hamstring or roll an ankle. Lunges on the other hand decrease your chance of injury over time as they strengthen the stabilizer muscles in your body.
- Space needed: you can do stationary lunges in a 4×4 box, you can’t do that with sprints.
The greatest fat burning benefit of these two movements is the excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC) that was discussed earlier. This is the golden ticket for fat loss as you are consistently losing fat even after your workout has been over for a while.
Both of these movements should absolutely be incorporated into a weekly training program.
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