Tabata Workouts – The Fastest Way to Get Fit & Lean

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4 years ago

Fitness people exercising with battle ropes at gym

Tabata workouts can improve your levels of health and fitness. According to scientific evidence, it just takes a few minutes of exercise every single day.

Differences Between Tabata and HIIT Workouts

There are differences between how Tabata routines work and HIIT workouts. As in how they improve your fitness levels.

Tabata workouts are very short bursts of exercise. Yet those 4 minutes are intended to radically boost fitness levels. These workouts are set at a greater intensity than HIIT exercises. Just 4 minutes of this workout has the same impact as doing an hour of moderate aerobic exercise. It provides a further 28% improvement in anaerobic performance. This is not achieved with the slower workouts.

The routine consists of 20 seconds of activity followed by a 10-second breather. It is a cycle repeated 8 times for a workout lasting a grand total of 4 minutes.

The Edge That Tabata Workouts Have Over Interval Routines

The basic idea behind the Tabata routine is simple. The shorter periods of activity and rest will give you a more intense workout in a shorter space of time. So, you will gain extra advantages over the interval routines in a shorter amount of time.

5 Benefits of Doing the Tabata Workouts

These workouts are proven to give you better results than other types of workouts in a fraction of time.

1. Losing Body Fat

The great thing about this routine is that it will lead to you losing body fat. It will do with as little as 4 minutes of each exercise every day. Your body fat will reduce and you do not have to take up valuable time out of your daily schedule.

2. It Is Efficient

The Tabata regime is really efficient at getting you fit and leaner looking in a matter of days. Just a short amount of intense exercise daily gives better results than hours of HIIT every week.

It removes the excuse that you do not have any spare time to get down to doing it.

3. Lower Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

Now metabolic syndrome is a range of health conditions that are caused by lack of exercise. High blood pressure, high sugar levels, and heart diseases. This can also be caused by eating too much unhealthy food. These workouts lower the risk.

4. Maintains Your Muscle

Using the Tabata way means that you lose weight as a consequence of losing fat instead of losing muscles. With the high intensity of these routines, fat and calories are burned up. At the same time that your muscles are thoroughly worked out.

5. Maintaining Your Youth

Following this workout daily will give you more energy as well as greater confidence. With just a few minutes each day, you can look and feel the best you have done for years. You are giving your body the attention it needs to thrive again.

Ready To Try a Tabata Workout? Pick Your Exercise

You will want to choose a multi-joint, or compound movement. One that gets your whole body moving and quickly increases your heart rate. Rowing or doing squats with a weighted overhead press would be a couple of good options. You can do burst training on a treadmill, too, but only if you feel comfortable hopping on and off. Sprinting on a treadmill can be a little tricky, so be extra careful!

Always Warmup Before Your Tabata Workout

Once you have chosen your activity, make sure you do a warm-up before diving in. Also, make sure you have some way to time your rounds.

There are apps you can download, special timers you can buy and even music that has cues for each round. You can use a friend to time it for you so they can cheer you on or watch in amazement at the intensity of your workout. After you’ve warmed up and have gotten a method to time it all, you are ready to go.

Your Tabata Workout

The challenge is to work as hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds.

Here are some great moves for a longer, Tabata-influenced workout routine. Put these 5 bodyweight exercises together for a hardcore 10 minutes. Try to perform 10 reps of each move within about 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds before moving to next move. After each cycle, rest for 30 seconds before repeating the cycle 3 more times.

1. Push-Ups

Lying face-down on the floor with hands wider than shoulder-width.
Raise your body up off the floor by extending arms with the body straight.
Keeping your body straight, lower yourself back down to the floor by bending your arms.

2. Squats

Squat down by bending hips back and allowing knees to bend forward.
Keep your back straight and knees pointed same direction as feet.
Go down until your thighs are past parallel to the floor, stand back up and do it again.

3. Burpee or Squat Thrust

Bend over and squat down.
Place both hands on the floor, a little bit wider than your shoulders.
While holding your upper body in place, jump your legs back into a plank position.
Jump your legs back in underneath you and stand up.

To make that same move a burpee, when you jump back into the plank position, lower your chest to the ground. To increase the intensity of either of those variations, do a little jump at the top instead of just standing up.

4. Vertical Jump

Pretty straightforward: Squat down and jump up as high as possible, after landing, immediately jump up again.

5. Mountain Climbers

Begin in a push-up position, with your weight supported on your hands and toes.
Start the move by bringing one leg in until the knee is approximately under the hip.
Explosively reverse the positions of your legs.
Extend the bent leg until the leg is straight and supported by the toe, and bring the other leg up and in.

Any Risks with a Tabata Workout?

Tabata training is not recommended for beginners. It’s better suited for someone who has been working out consistently. And who is comfortable with high-intensity exercise. There is an increased risk for injury when performing exercises at a high-intensity.

Make sure you can complete all the moves with proper form. And that you did a thorough warm-up. Be sure and pick moves that are appropriate for your current level of fitness. And remember, everything can be modified.