Let’s face the facts: exercising can take time. Aside from having to allocate at least an hour at the gym, there’s also the time you need to spend travelling to the gym, changing your clothes, and then cleaning up after. Not everyone can spare at least 3-4 hours a day with their hectic schedules and mountains of responsibilities, so what should you do if you’re swamped with things to do but you want to be fit?
One workout that’s gaining a lot of attention as of late is the Tabata Exercise. Developed by Dr. Izumi Tabata, the Tabata Exercise was designed for Olympic speed skaters. It is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) that makes use of the 20-10 pattern that will tax both aerobic and anaerobic pathways. It’s gaining a lot of buzz from a wide array of fitness specialties and is being practiced by CrossFitters and boot camp devotees.
The trick in doing a Tabata Exercise is to rest only half the duration of your intense workout. So, if you’ve been doing a heavy routine for twenty seconds, you only rest for ten seconds and then repeat. This will make you perform again before you’re fully recovered, pushing you to the limit.
Why is Tabata a great exercise for busy folks? Well, the right recipe will let you sweat as much as you can in just a few minutes. Beginners are actually recommended to only do only a few minutes at first, which is great if you only have a few minutes a day to sweat it out. Here are a few sample workouts that will only take a couple of minutes:
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Cardio Tabata Workout
Sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, repeat 8 times. Follow this with a jump rope routine for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, repeat 8 times.
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Bodyweight Tabata Workout
Squat jumps for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds. Followed by push ups for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds. Next do burpees for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds. Then do some sit ups for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat the whole routine twice.
If you don’t think you can’t work with an unguided workout session, the Insanity workout is a lot like Tabata. You can subscribe to this home workout service and get a good workout every time. Just make sure that if you’re planning on doing any of these two that you’ll put everything you can into the workout. The secret is to exert as much effort as you can so you can test your strength as much as possible.