Doing really intense sprints gives your body a big, quick boost in growth hormone—up to 17 times more—which helps protect your muscles and burn fat.

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Pro

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

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Growth hormone responses to treadmill sprinting in sprint- and endurance-trained athletes

Cross-Sectional Study

Human

1996

The study shows that sprinting causes a big, lasting rise in growth hormone, which helps build muscle and may reduce muscle breakdown—supporting the main idea of the claim.

Contradicting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

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Human skeletal muscle possesses an epigenetic memory of high intensity interval training affecting mitochondrial function

Cohort Study

Human

The study looked at how muscles remember past training on a cellular level, but it didn’t measure hormone changes right after sprints, so it doesn’t show whether sprinting boosts growth hormone or helps burn fat.

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Similar Assertions

Sprint athletes get a much bigger spike in their growth hormone after a hard 30-second sprint than endurance athletes do — their bodies react differently because of their training.

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83%

When athletes do their hardest sprints, how fast they go and how much lactic acid builds up in their blood can explain most of why their growth hormone spikes — it’s closely tied to how intensely their body is working.

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75%

Even though lifting weights with short breaks makes your body release more growth hormone, that doesn’t mean you’ll grow bigger muscles over time.

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71%