Every number on this page comes from a source you can open. The case for Line It Up is not that sprinting is fun, although it is. It is that speed is the first thing adults lose, almost nobody works to keep it, and a real race is the most reliable way to change that.
Muscle does not age evenly. The fast twitch fibers that produce speed and power shrink and disappear before the slow twitch fibers that carry you through a jog. The clock starts in your twenties.
Whole muscle cross sections from men aged 15 to 83 show atrophy starting around 25 and accelerating after that, driven by fiber loss and by shrinkage that hits fast twitch fibers hardest. 10
Healthy 71 year olds had quadriceps 15 percent smaller than 23 year olds, and the entire difference was explained by fast twitch fibers being 29 percent smaller. Six months of resistance training grew them back 24 percent. 11
In healthy adults aged 65 to 89, leg extensor power fell about 3.5 percent a year, two to three times faster than strength. Power, not strength, predicted how fast people could rise from a chair. 13
Sprinting is the most common thing children do on a field and one of the rarest things adults do anywhere. The data on vigorous effort with age is consistent across every country that measures it.
Track and field is the most popular girls sport and the second most popular boys sport in American high schools. 5
213,400 adults in England did track and field at least twice in a month in 2023 to 24. Fourteen percent ran. Almost none of them sprinted on a track, and the number is falling. 6
Of 51,868 people in England with a competitive track and field result in 2018, only 13 percent were 35 or older, and 43 percent of teenagers who competed one year did not compete the next. 7
Distance running is good for you. The evidence for that is enormous and this page does not argue with it. The question is what sprinting adds that steady running does not: the same fitness in a fraction of the time, a stronger effect on blood sugar, and bone that endurance running leaves untouched.
Twelve weeks of three 20 second all out sprints inside a 10 minute session raised peak oxygen uptake 19 percent in sedentary men, identical to 50 minute moderate sessions, with a five fold smaller time commitment. 18
Six weeks of sprint intervals at about 1.5 hours a week produced the same increases in the muscle machinery for burning carbohydrate and fat as endurance training at 4.5 hours a week and ten times the volume. 19
Master sprinters in their seventies had hip bone density 10 percent higher than master endurance runners and 14 percent higher than people who did not train. The endurance runners were no different from the people who did nothing. 22
The clearest evidence comes from people who never stopped: masters sprinters followed for a decade with muscle biopsies and bone scans, and sedentary adults in their sixties who started from nothing.
Twenty four masters sprinters aged 48 to 85 were biopsied and then biopsied again ten years later. Fiber size and fiber type mix had not changed. They still got slower, 14 percent over 60 m, but the muscle itself held. 25
Lifelong sedentary men averaging 62 did one sprint session every five days for six weeks. Peak power rose 124.6 watts, about 17 percent, lean mass rose 2 kg, every participant finished, and no adverse events were recorded. 27
Inactive adults averaging 65 who did six second all out sprints twice a week for eight weeks cut their get up and go time by 1.32 seconds, sit to stand by 2.67 seconds, and two hour blood glucose by 1.32 mmol/L. The control group got worse on glucose and sit to stand. 28
Everyone knows they should exercise. Knowing has never been the problem. What moves people is a date, a clock, another person on the line, and something to be.
In a randomized trial of 790 people, those placed in competitive networks attended 90 percent more exercise classes than those given social support or nothing. The support only group attended fewer than the control. 29
Across 62 datasets, how strongly a person sees themselves as an athlete correlated with how much they actually move, and the relationship held regardless of study design. 30
New registrants for a weekly timed 5K were still doing 39 more minutes of activity a week 12 months on, ran 12 percent faster, and the overweight among them had lost 2.4 percent of body weight. 32
That is the design. Line It Up is not one race. It is a series with a record that follows you from stop to stop, and a date you can circle before you have decided whether you are a sprinter.
The 40 yard dash is the most watched footrace in America and almost nobody has run one on a real clock. That gap is the opportunity.
NFL Network’s 2025 Combine drew its biggest four day audience since 2017, and the Saturday session with the marquee 40s averaged 484,000 viewers, the network’s best ever for that window. 33
The official Combine 40 is run by an invitation only group of about 300 draft prospects a year. The record is 4.21 seconds. Only three men have beaten 4.24 since 2008. 34
A record 250 million Americans took part in a sport, fitness or leisure activity in 2025, and team sports passed 90 million. Yet only 32 percent meet the 150 minute weekly guideline. 35
You get an officially timed 40 in a bracket, a record that follows you to the next event, and a reason to train for speed that no plan has ever given you. It is free to enter. Officials set the field.
Two people, forty yards, one winner, and the crowd is close enough to hear the start. Nobody hides in a heat. A 52 year old in a final is the best thing you will see all day.
Everyday adults, 30 to 60, racing on camera in their own city, filmed head to head and put on the record. Sponsorship spend is moving back toward properties like this, and the ones that exist are growing fast. Line It Up is one market today.
The 40 is already the most recognized measure of speed in the country. Line It Up is the first place everyday people can run it for real. The format is proven, the first purse has been paid, and the comparables above show what happens when a participation sport finds its format.
Questions from runners, press, partners or investors: info@lineitup40.com