People often ask me, how I manage to find time for working out. Sometimes I start thinking, am I the one that has way too much free time or they just can’t get their priorities right and manage their time… I often wonder how is it possible to find time to go shopping, go to a restaurant, spy in facebook and so on…and people never find time to workout! That is why today I will suggest you a method for really quick but effective workout. It is called Tabata and it is developed by Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., a former researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Fitness. Tabata lasts only four minutes, but it is enough time to drain your strength. What you need to do is this:
1.Pick an exercise( my advice is to pick a functional one)
2.For 20 seconds do the exercise as quick as possible
3.After that rest 10 seconds.
4. Repeat this cycle for 8 times for a total of 4minutes.
When I tell somebody about this method of working out, I get the perplexed look “ Are you kidding?”. People underestimate how difficult Tabata is and how these 4minutes are enough to test your limits. Here we come up to intensity! As I said earlier, it is really important to do the exercise as fast as possible, but still pay attention to your technique!
Everybody who at first doubted the Tabata method, after some personal experience with it, never dares to underestimate it again! I remember the first time I did Tabata. I did Tabata Squats. This was one of my first practices, after I stopped swimming. Until then I was used to the long workouts in the pool and I thought that if your workout ain’t long, it means it is not effective. When I understood that the whole WOD was only 4 minutes long, I literally wanted to cry, because I was mad I was wasting my time…4minutes later I wanted to cry, but this time because of what Tabata did to me!
If you still think that I am just ranting, I will let myself bore you with some researches about Tabata:
Dr. Tabata took two groups of elite atheletes and put them through 6 weeks of training (5 days a week). Group 1 Ran 60 minutes a day at 70% capacity, while Group 2 did sprints in the Tabata principle (sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10, sprint for 20, etc. for 4 minutes. At the end of the 6 weeks:
-Group 1 increased only their aerobic capacity by 9.5% and anaerobic capacity by 0%.
-Group 2 increased their maximum aerobic capacity by 14% AND increased their maximum anaerobic capacity by 28%.
This is enough said, to show you how effective this method is, and the best thing about Tabata is that it lasts only four minutes!
Of course I wouldn’t recommend you workout, without warming up first so you could take 10 minutes to warm up, then choose an exercise and do the Tabata for 4minutes. After you are done, stretch for about 5-10minutes. All I want from you are 24 minutes! If you really do not have time, I will tell you how to find… GET UP 24 minutes earlier every morning!
Tabata burpees
Tabata push ups
Tabata squats
You can do also tabata pull ups, tabata box jumps, tabata thrusters and so on.
Next time you think that you do not have time to workout, remember about Tabata and think again,aren’t you just making excuses!
In order to see more suggestions about quick workouts, read here and here.
Here is the whole study I talked about!
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