Tabata Protocol

This post is especially for one of my dear friends.  She asked me what a "Tabata workout" was, and I told her I would dedicate some time to blogging about this approach to exercising.

Tabata is particularly popular in the professional sports world, where you have athletes that are in peak physical condition, and accustomed to serious workouts (and therefore able to handle the intensity).

Some call the Tabata Protocol "The ultimate cardio workout", or "The world's greatest fat burning workout".  For those looking to magically shed pounds, this isn't a cure-in-just-four-minutes; however, pair working your hardest in that short amount of time, combined with a proper diet, and you definitely will see results.  Judge for yourself!

The idea behind Tabata is to burn fat in a very brief amount of time, with high-intensity interval training.  Research indicated that the optimal ratio of intense work to rest was 2:1.

Start with a proper warm up, proceed to 20 seconds on (full-swing!), 10 seconds off (rest period), back into a burst of 20 more seconds at full-intensity, then another 10 seconds rest.  Repeat 8 times.  There are many different exercise variations you can do in those 4 minutes of hell.  Body weight exercises are fantastic (think Squat Thrust/Burpees, which are tough!), and also using free weights (such as a kettle bell).

Here is a Tabata-inspired workout with modified timing (hence the "inspired").  It takes a little easier pace, and is great for beginners.



Be sure to check out more 4 Minute Tabata workouts from Bex; she has at least 10 different videos that I've tried out in this series!  I like all of the different variations.

I originally learned about Tabata workouts a few years ago.  Basically, the exercises are to be so gruelling that you can barely finish.  It's four minutes of major pain, to gain (or complete HELL... but you make it through)!
I will confess, though, that I did my first Tabata exercises under the absolute worst of conditions.  I was in my second or third week of recovering from quite possibly the scariest illness I've ever had (combination of "the Swine flu"/Pneumonia), and in my delirium, had the not-at-all-brilliant idea to do a series like the one below.



Please don't EVER do what I did, unless you want to seriously injure yourself!  Only consider a Tabata workout if you are in really good shape.  I felt like I was going to die... Go figure!

What do you think of the Tabata Protocol?  Are you inspired to increase the intensity of your workouts by incorporating this kind of exercise into your weekly regimen?

"Fat burn is greater when exercise intensity is high."