Tabata interval training is high-intensity training at its best. Tabatas are simple, efficient and devastatingly effective, and provide you with a workout that takes no more than 30 minutes. Personal trainers, strength coaches and people who train on their own can all benefit from this method of high-intensity training.
I’ve written about Tabatas several times over the past two years, but I’ll provide a quick summary for those of you who are unfamiliar with this method of interval training.
- Each Tabata interval is a four-minute period
- During each interval you exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds
- Repeat this cycle eight times
- The 20 seconds of work is at 100% effort
- Working as hard as you can for the entire time is the key to reaping the benefits
In this edition of the Health and Fitness Advice Training Journal I’ve posted a Tabata interval workout that I did with one of my clients a few months ago. The workout consisted of squat thrusts, body weight squats, push-ups and a bout on the stationary cycle. We rested for approximately 2 minutes in between each exercise and the entire workout took less than 25 minutes.
This week’s video features Joan and I doing squat thrusts. I try to do 10-12 squat thrusts per 20 seconds, as at this pace I’m working as hard as I can. Joan did a great job keeping up with me pretty much the whole way. The workout was completed on January 21, 2009.
We took a 2-minute rest before we started with the body weight squats and next week I’ll post the video of that portion of our Tabata interval workout.
