4 Minute Workout Instructions
It is possible to structure your workout so that it only takes four minutes, although you do need to make up for the shortness with higher intensity. What's more, it is not enough to do a four-minute workout every day without any other exercise. Rather, a four-minute workout --- called a Tabata --- should supplement your routing, either by doing other exercises before or after it, doing multiple four-minute workouts per day or doing a four-minute workout once a week to gauge how effective the rest of your training is.
Instructions
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Choose an exercise that you are confident with. Because four-minute exercises rely on speed and intensity, you should not have to spend time thinking about form. Rather, it should be an exercise whose form you are already intimately familiar with.
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Do a compound exercise. You only have four minutes to work your whole body, so the exercise should work multiple muscle groups. Do a cardiovascular exercise like running or a compound lift like a bench press or front squat. Barbell curls and triceps kickbacks, however, are out.
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Work as hard as you can for 20 seconds, and do as many repetitions as possible in the short time you have available; the more you do in your 20 seconds, the better. Because you don't have much time, you have to make each interval count by pushing yourself to your limit.
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Rest for 10 seconds.
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Repeat another 20-second interval of hard work.
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Repeat this pattern until you've reached four minutes, which is eight rounds of 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest.
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Change your four-minute exercise on a regular basis to ensure that your body gets enough of a workout in a variety of movement patterns.
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Take at least a day of rest between four-minute workouts.
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Tips & Warnings
Slow down without stopping for your rest intervals if you're doing cardiovascular work, but put the bar down for weight-training work.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
