Thursday, January 8, 2015

Welcome 2015! A Tabata Workout

Happy New Year!
If your stuck in a state where its negative degrees outside and you don't want to go out to the gym like me you've come to the right place! 
Lets start off this year right with a tabata workout. Tabata is a HITT type of workout (High Intensity Interval Training) which is great for burning calories more efficiently for less time. Tabata is based on 8 rounds of the same exercise for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest for a total of 4 minutes. After the 4 minutes you get a 1 minute rest period before switching exercises. 4 minutes of hard work that's it? It can't be true but it is. Here is the workout I completed today and can be done anywhere. It does not require weight however you can add extra weight to some exercises if you wish.

Start with a 5 minute warm up consisting of lateral lunges, forward luges, jumping jacks, high kicks and butt kickers each will last one minute. 

Do each exercise for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest for 4 minutes straight or 8 rounds. I used a stop watch on my phone but you can find an interval timer app or use a timer like me:

burpees
push up (either full push up or on knees, just keep the back straight and never fully extend elbows)
lunges back with forward kick *kick with right leg only for 20 sec then switch on next round
toe touches
boxing (pretend to punch a punching bag, fast)
front plank on elbows
jumping jacks (faster then warm up)
squat with double pulse below knees if possible
bicycle crunch
side plank (2 minutes or 4 rounds on one side then switch)

cool down:
stretch major muscles used (shoulders, triceps, quads, hamstrings, abs and anything else you feel is needed) hold for 20 seconds each

After the workout, finish with a protein smoothie and enjoy your day!


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