What so many of us are looking for is a workout is something that burns loads of calories but does so in the shortest amount of time possible. Our time is precious and our goals are ambitious. We want the best workout possible but not many of us have the time to fully engage.
That's why the Tabata workout has gained so much credence in recent years. Developed by Japanese professor Izumi Tabata, the Tabata takes HIIT to the next level. Tabata had been working with Japanese speed skaters and designed a workout based on ultra-intense bursts of activity over 20 second bursts with 10 second rest intervals, all spread over a 4 minute period.
Here's Professor Tabata talking about how it works:
If you're a beginner with Tabata, start with easier exercises like squats or crunches. If you're in better shape, burpees, spidermans planks or jump squats
Here's a sample advanced Tabata workout from 8fit
- Burpees: Eight rounds of burpees – 20 seconds of exercise/10 second break
- 60-second break
- Dynamic squats or Bulgarian split squats with hop: Do eight rounds of your chosen leg exercise - 20 seconds of exercise/10 second break
- 60-second recovery
- Spiderman plank: Do eight rounds of spiderman planks – 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest
Here's a great Tabata workout video if you want to see it in action
