How to Get Stronger Using Tabata Intervals

Don't have the money for an expensive gym membership? Don't have an hour each day to spend working out? Want to still get a great workout, without spending any money or devoting hours of time? You need to know about Tabata intervals, they will change how you view working out.

Tabata intervals are based on the concept of high intensity workouts in short periods of time. The key to this type of workout is to do the exercise at your maximum ability level. If you do these with maximum effort you'll notice a difference from your typical workouts.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sweatshop Timer
• 15 minutes
• Work ethic

1. Tabata intervals are based on the principle of working out at maximum effort for short periods of time. You can do these without any equipment and still get a great workout. I help coach the wrestling team at the middle school where I teach, our school does not have a weight room, so we did these intervals instead. By the end of the season our students were noticeably better conditioned than the other schools we wrestled.

2. The first thing that you will need is a timer of some sort. Tabata intervals consist of doing rounds. A round is doing an exercise at maximum effort for 20 seconds, followed by a 10 second rest. If you are going to be working out close to a computer you can download a free timer from http://www.workmanstudybible.com/sweatshop/. If you don't have a computer handy a hand timer will work just as well.

3. In Tabata intervals the goal is to do each exercise for 8 rounds. You may not be able to start off doing 8 rounds, this is fine, start off doing however many rounds you are capable of doing. The goal is to build up to being able to do 8 rounds. If you do all 8 rounds each exercise will only take you 4 minutes to complete.

4. A typical workout consists of 4 exercises, you can do more or less depending on your level of conditioning. Some exercises that you can build into your routine are jumping jacks, squats, lunges, toe raises, burpees, mountain climbers, bicycles, push-ups, and dips, just to name a few. Feel free to work in your favorite exercise as well. You may also want to focus on the lower body one day and the upper body the next. This will allow the muscles some time to rest and heal before you work them again. Check out the related articles if you are unsure of how to do a burpee, mountain climber, or bicycle.

5. The key to being successful with Tabata intervals is to give a maximum effort and to do it for the full 20 seconds. Again, if you haven't worked out in awhile don't feel like you have to start with 8 rounds of each exercise, start with what you are capable of doing. Good luck and work hard.