I call this Time Management
Yesterday while searching for more physical fitness training variation, I came a across a method called Tabata. It was developed by Izumi Tabata, at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. I tried this last night and I approve the effectiveness of this workout.
Just as a warning, before you try this workout, make sure you are in a pretty good state of fitness. I say this is some high level exercise.
The only time required for this workout is 4 minutes. You may be wondering, "4 minutes!? I thought you were a long distance runner who used to run for hours!" Yeah I thought the same when I first glanced at the idea. I could barely run 1500 meters in 4 minutes (much slower now I guess), and that's less than a mile! What can you possibly do in 4 minutes and effectively workout!?
Well, the concept is simple. Pick your favorite workout drill. Let's say for the purpose of this post, push ups. But it can be any full-body (or somewhere close) exercise. Start your clock, and do push ups, as many as you can, for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds, walk around or stretch your arms if you can still move, and do 20 seconds of push ups as many as you can after the 10 sec rest, and so on, 8 times. The key here is "as many as you can" and you'll notice that the number of push ups you can do in 20 seconds will significantly decrease as you go. I did this yesterday with push ups, jump squats, and ab twist, and I was totally exhausted upon the completion of this 12 minute session. And my hamstrings are in great pain at the moment because I have not abused them so much for more than 4 months now.
So if you are whining that you don't have time to workout and get fit, this might just be your only option. In just 15 minutes, you can achieve more than what an average American do in a week. But like I said, you should have a good base before trying this exercise, because not only this workout is exhausting, you may not have a good idea of "as many as you can" if you've never done a sport before.
Some ideas for a drill: sprinting, dumbbell thrust, burpees, standing long jump, and endless possibilities.
While you work out, maybe a good background music can help you get pumped up.
Just as a warning, before you try this workout, make sure you are in a pretty good state of fitness. I say this is some high level exercise.
The only time required for this workout is 4 minutes. You may be wondering, "4 minutes!? I thought you were a long distance runner who used to run for hours!" Yeah I thought the same when I first glanced at the idea. I could barely run 1500 meters in 4 minutes (much slower now I guess), and that's less than a mile! What can you possibly do in 4 minutes and effectively workout!?
Well, the concept is simple. Pick your favorite workout drill. Let's say for the purpose of this post, push ups. But it can be any full-body (or somewhere close) exercise. Start your clock, and do push ups, as many as you can, for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds, walk around or stretch your arms if you can still move, and do 20 seconds of push ups as many as you can after the 10 sec rest, and so on, 8 times. The key here is "as many as you can" and you'll notice that the number of push ups you can do in 20 seconds will significantly decrease as you go. I did this yesterday with push ups, jump squats, and ab twist, and I was totally exhausted upon the completion of this 12 minute session. And my hamstrings are in great pain at the moment because I have not abused them so much for more than 4 months now.
So if you are whining that you don't have time to workout and get fit, this might just be your only option. In just 15 minutes, you can achieve more than what an average American do in a week. But like I said, you should have a good base before trying this exercise, because not only this workout is exhausting, you may not have a good idea of "as many as you can" if you've never done a sport before.
Some ideas for a drill: sprinting, dumbbell thrust, burpees, standing long jump, and endless possibilities.
While you work out, maybe a good background music can help you get pumped up.
posted by Masato at
9:27 AM
2 Comments:
I tried this out with sit-ups, but there was no drop in number (and I felt fine at the end so I did my normal abs) . . . but then I gave push-ups a shot. Below is what happened (and what was going through my head at the time
Push-ups
1st :20 - 27 (okay, good start)
2nd :20 - 25
3rd :20 - 19 (uh-ohh, that was below 20)
4th :20 - 12 . . . (damn, I'm only half way?)
5th :20 - 7 (now I'm below 10??)
6th :20 - 4
7th :20 - 2 (why don't my arms work)
8th :20 - 3
. . . and I'm spent. Feels good, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow
Most people with adequate fitness can do sit-ups for a pretty long time, because abs are responsible for so many movements. Try with ab-wheels, I think you'll enjoy it.
And doing this with burpees can kill your self-confidence.
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