4 min intervals to boost health, stamina, fitness, and save time
What is Tabata?
Tabata is a short interval workout that has been proven to be very beneficial for health and can boost fitness. It is a simple 4 min workout consisting of 20 seconds of an all out effort with 10 sec of rest, 8 times. You can do anything you want during intervals, bike, run, swim, kettlebell swings, jumping jacks, air squats, weighted squats, lunges, literally whatever can be used for the intervals. Also you do not have to necessarily only use one exercise per tabata, you can do 20 sec of jumping jack, then 20 sec of push-ups, then 20 sec of squats, the amount of different combinations are endless. They can also be added at the end of a regular session on the spin bike to test your strength, at the end of a hard ride.
A Japanese Scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata came up with this high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. Dr. Tabata wanted to test traditional moderate effort steady state cardio (5 days a week, 60 mins of exercise per session, for 6 weeks) to Tabata style cardio (4 days a week, 4 min per session, for 6 weeks) with each other to see if one had more of a benefit than the other. At the end of the study they learned that the Tabata workouts yielded much more benefits than the standard steady state cardio. The steady state cardio only improved their aerobic system or the cardiovascular system, and the 4 min tabata intervals boosted the aerobic system as well as the anaerobic system! With less workout time they were able to get more benefits for their health and fitness!
Benefits of Tabata
Fat loss
Out with the old thinking of, long, slow, easy to moderate aerobic exercise for weight loss. Of course that has its place in fitness programs, but aerobic training is not the number one way to win the fight with fat. HIIT training has been shown to boost metabolic rate, and energy expenditure for 24 hours after you workout. This is known as Excess Post Oxygen Consumption aka. EPOC. When implementing HIIT training or tabata, a person burns more calories for up to 24 hours after the workout ends. Aerobic easy to moderate training has not been shown to do this and only burns calories while you are working out. So if you want to get the best bang for your time, implement some HIIT into your life and improve your body composition.
Anti-aging
HIIT training is amazing for mitochondrial biogenesis! Remember in biology class the teacher or professor talking about, “Mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell!” Yep them guys! Biogenesis is a fancy way of saying, increasing the amount of a living organism, so we are talking about increasing the amount of mitochondria in our bodies as well as enhancing the health of these little guys. The health of our mitochondria have a correlation to the health of us! We need to take care of these symbiotic organisms to help stay free of disease and metabolic dysfunction, which will inevitably increase the number of productive years in our lives. So do these little guys a favor and give them what they need. This gives us more of a reason to do a Tabata 4 times a week!
Muscle preservation and an increase in testosterone
Something I am super passionate about is increasing the number of productive years in my life. I feel that a lot of people want to live longer but no one ever talks about living the years you already have to the absolute limit! I want to live till I am 85 riding mountain bikes, swinging kettlebells, and going backpacking till the day I die. I would rather have a productive meaningful life than live longer like 100 and have the last 20 plus years of my life being in and out of the hospital and relying on other people to live my life. Quality of life is something to not be taken for granted. We can use Tabata to help keep us healthier up into our wiser years. HIIT has been shown to preserve muscle and has a direct increase in testosterone production. Something that many people struggle with later in life is hormone health, like testosterone levels. Hormones are super important for maintaining muscle, well into our elderly years. Implementing as little as 4 minutes of Tabata, 4 days a week could potentially allow us to do the things we love, well into our wiser years. I know I’m doing Tabata intervals for this reason alone!
Easy to implement for busy workaholics
We live in a busy society. Some people drive in traffic, for one hour to work, work for eight plus hours, then drive home in traffic for one hour. That is at least ten to eleven hours everyday of dedication to your job. If you add in eight hours of sleep, that leaves you with, six to seven hours everyday to, get ready for work, de-stress after work, do some chores, and make dinner. This is a high stress, busy lifestyle we have set ourselves up with, and the consequences of this for our health can be devastating. Tabata is something a busy person can implement into their life, to better their health and wellbeing. Someone can do their Tabata workout, first thing in the morning, before work in the parking lot when trying to destress from the drive in traffic, after work in the parking lot, or even once someone gets home before opening the door to their home. Planned exercise is vital to our health and wellbeing and a Tabata is a tool to make this easier for us.
Not time consuming
This goes without saying if you have read the section above “What is Tabata.” These workouts literally have some sort of benefit, with as little as 4 min a day. I know for a fact everyone has enough time for 4 mins. We have no excuses to not do something for our health and wellbeing everyday. As little as 4 min of dedicated intense exercise can get you started on a path to greater health, it’s time to get your health back!
Sample Tabata Workouts
Tabata Workout #1:
Alternating Reverse Lunges (youtube video of exercise)
20 sec on with 10 sec of rest x 8 sets
Tabata Workout #2:
Push-ups for sets 1, 3, 5, 7
Alternating Reverse Lunges for sets 2, 4, 6, 8
20 sec on 10 sec rest= 1 set
Tabata Workout #3:
Jumping Jacks for sets 1, 3, 5, 7
High Knees (running in place) for sets 2, 4, 6, 8
20 sec on 10 sec rest= 1 set
See how simple these workouts can be and how they are super short but yet are still able to give you a boost in health and fitness! I implement Tabata intervals into my workouts all the time. I typically use it as a warm-up before my weight training workouts with kettlebell swings. Also when I was training for a Marathon, while in PTA school, I did not have a lot of time to train. I would knock out 2 or 3 Tabatas for my workout running hills. Tabata training is simple yet effective and I feel everyone can do this no matter what fitness level they are and no matter what age. Disclaimer, I am not saying that one Tabata four days a week is all you need to improve your health, it is a tool you can implement throughout your week and still have positive impacts on your health. If you have any questions feel free to ask away! Hope you have a great day, and go knock out a Tabata!