Tabata What?

Last week in Friday's class, we used a new methodology to jack our heart rates up in our heavy Cardio Class. It's called Tabata Training. Here's a background on Tabata Training.

Ahh. Dr. Tabata, or as I refer to him in my bootcamp classes, The Evil Dr. Tabata. Once you have tried Tabata Drills you will understand why this form of training can be so darn effective. This simple to implement training can burn a ridiculous amount of calories. And the great news is it only takes 4 minutes. Come on, you can do anything for 4 minutes. Right?

Add this to your workout routine and you will substantially increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. It was the result of a 1996 study Dr. Tabata did on Olympic caliber athletes and this routine wiped them out. So work your way up to doing the full four minutes.

The reason it is so effective is E.P.O.C., exercise post oxygen consumption. An acronym that refers to calories burned after you stop working out. Tabata drills can continue to burn calories for up to 2 days. This can add up to 75 calories burned per day to your total. 7 times 75 equals 525. Nice.

This is a very simple technique you can use to up the intensity of your daily workouts, whether it is a strength day, cardio day or combo day. You are not limited to doing squats, you can substitute push-ups or jump squats. You can do this on the elliptical trainer or spinning. Essentially anything that gets your heart rate up. You will do as many reps of a designated exercise, as you can in 20 seconds. If you are on the elliptical or spinning – sprint for 20 seconds. Follow this with 10 seconds of rest. 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest. Repeat for 4 minutes. You can choose just one exercise or you can alternate (like we did Friday) between 2 exercises. Be very strict on the timing for maximum results. This is where your gymboss timer comes into play.

Here is the drill we did on Friday. I dare you to try this just once on your own this week. Share this with one of your workout partners. They may never forgive you! Comment on the blog and let us know how it went.

Tabata Drill #1: 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest

1. High Knee Runs for 20 seconds/10 seconds rest
2. Squat Jumps for 20 seconds/10 seconds rest

Repeat 3 more times

Tabata Drill #2:

1. Split jumps, scissor lunges or cross country skiing
2. Push-ups – fast

Repeat 3 more times

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A GOOD USE OF YOUR WORKOUT TIME :)