Everyone has an obsession in life and one of mine is my health. I admit I am a vain guy. Sure I like to focus on my health to have a better life but it’s driven more by my desire to look good. Believe it or not, it’s one of the ways I got the idea for Sprint Recruiting.
I began my health journey in 2012 after realizing I had gained sixty pounds of fat and was pretty miserable. I’ve tried all kinds of fad diets, eating styles and workout styles. Part of my research led me to High Intensity Interval Training as a way to drop fat quicker. I was more interested in the quick part of the promise to lose fat than I was the workout.
One of the workouts I tried included the use of sprints during runs. The idea was to alternate sprinting and walking during a set period of time to increase the heart rate in bursts. The first time I tried it I absolutely hated it but it was better than spending forty five minutes on a treadmill going nowhere.
Doing the HIIT training for thirty days was probably the most miserable health decision I made but the results were incredible. I dropped ten pounds and experienced an increased focus and determination. Of course, the nerd in me wondered whether this was a fluke or if there was actual science behind it.
The National Council on Strength and Fitness released an article encouraging trainers to consider sprint training to help clients meet their goals. It goes on to say that studies on sprinters showed less muscle decline than those athletes who only did the traditional form of working out, resistance training.
During sprint training, the heart works very hard to meet the energy demands necessary for the success of the exercise. By utilizing short duration, sprint-type activities, the strength of the heart will improve. At the muscular level, most individuals will not experience the same adaptations normally associated with aerobic training. The studies quoted showed more calaries are burned during a sprint training than an aerobic training.
One thing I found that helped me push through HIIT was the duration. Unlike trying to convince myself to stay on a treadmill for forty five minutes or run four miles, the HIIT routines were short but intense. I could mentally break the thirty minute routine into, “OK I’m going to do this exercise for the next five minutes.” For me, it was easier to get through those sprints than it was being bored with traditional cardio.
The same lessons I learned from my experience trying HIIT are applicable to Sprint Recruiting.
Defining the sprint helps relieve the constant pressure I once felt looking at all of the open jobs our team had to fill. It made the daunting task managing a lot of jobs easier looking at a defined scope of time. You will find that just like sprint training, your focus will begin to narrow on what can be accomplished in two weeks versus your brain being overwhelmed and shutting down.
It may sound demeaning to the jobs I’m working, but I treat the daunting nature of sourcing for a number of jobs like cardio. If I work in sprints and only focus on a select few, important jobs, I can make a lot of progress because it seems doable. I use the priority points set by my clients to determine which positions require my attention each week and allocate time to source, follow up and execute.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by your workload, try breaking it down to smaller, bite-size pieces and work in a sprint. Try limiting your sprint to one or two weeks and measure your results. That’s where Sprint Recruiting becomes your secret weapon!
I’m willing to bet you’ll find yourself twice as productive and able to source more, qualified candidates which will lead to not only raving candidates but happy clients!
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