Always looking to show you stuff that gets great results in a short time without spending a penny or having to go anywhere to do it, I thought I would introduce you to the Tabata Protocol in this post.
Tabata training is not new (not much is so don't get caught up in the hype). It is a form of interval training (my favourite) and is based on a study conducted by Dr. Izumi Tabata in 1996 of the Institute of Sports and Fitness Tokyo. He wanted to know if shorter more intense workouts had the same benefits as longer less intense sessions. The study was run over a 6 week period using athletes who were already highly trained and all saw a marked improvement in both aerobic and anaerobic fitness in this short time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training . The total time of the workout was four minutes and it still showed better gains than an hours moderate intensity workout. How? Well the key is intensity.
Heres how it works.
20 seconds flat out exercise followed by 10 seconds rest repeated 8 times.
Make sure you have warmed up adequately before going for it as this is working yourself to the max and you don't want to be going in to this one cold. As I said earlier, I'm showing you this method as a way of working out without using anything so I'm only using body weight, running or maybe a skip rope. When choosing the exercises think large muscle groups or exercises that recruit a number of muscle groups such as free standing squats, press ups, skipping, burpees etc. Things like arms curls and arm extensions are more isolation exercises for targeted muscles and won't really have much total fat burning or fitness benefits.
Now the key is intensity so, your 20 seconds on is at your 100% (whatever that is) and stick as closely as you can to the timing as posible. If for instance you have chosen skipping then high knee lift sprints or double unders would be more appropriate than playground skipping. If you choose a body weight exercise like press ups or squats again do them as fast as you can without loosing good form or technique.
How I use Tabata
If there is not enough hours in the day it is a good way of getting something in without spending too much time at it. Another way is at the end of a workout to really help boost my metabolism up so my body is still burning off the fat hours later.
Have a go and let me know how you get on.
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