You’ve been working hard in the gym. You know what to do and get it done – week after week. As a result, you’ve been seeing great results. You’re getting leaner, stronger and you’re starting to feel like you’ve found your groove.
Don’t get too comfortable.
The minute you let yourself simply maintain the status quo with your workouts is the minute you are headed for a progress plateau.
If you’ve done your research, you know by now that interval training trumps steady state cardio any day of the week. It’s simply more time efficient, produces a higher metabolic burn, and prevents the loss of lean muscle mass.
But now, there’s a new interval cardio workout in town called Tabata training. This cardio workout promises to change the way you think about fitness forever.
Read on to discover whether Tabata is right for you.
What Tabata Training Is
Tabata training is an ultra-short, 4 minute interval training workout that will push your body to the max. Now, you may not think that four minutes is much of a workout – how could you possibly be challenged?
But, give this workout a try and you will see how, guaranteed.
What you will do for this workout is perform an all-out intense bout of exercise for 20 seconds straight. Then, in the fashion of interval training, you’ll take a 10 second rest period before restarting another 20 seconds of intense, interval training.
This is repeated 8 time total for the four minute workout. Make sure that you perform a brief warm-up and cool-down before and after the session as well to prepare your body for the work it’s about to do.
Another Great Read
In terms of mode of exercise, the choice is yours. All that you need to be able to do is get up to full intensity immediately so that you can make the most of the 20 second interval you’ll be doing.
Uphill running sprints, burpees, kettlebell swings, or squat jumps are all excellent choices. Spin biking can also be used if you prefer a more conventional form of cardio.
If you’re going to do this workout on the treadmill, I’d suggest simply keeping the belt going at top speed the entire time and simply hopping off for the 10 seconds of rest between. Otherwise, it’s too hard to get the treadmill up to full speed to complete the workout as you should.
The Benefits
So what are the benefits from doing this 4 minute workout session?
Basically, the benefits mirror high intensity interval training – just kicked up a notch.
You’ll see a dramatically higher resting metabolic rate for up to 48 hours after doing this workout session. In addition to that, as far as your fitness goes, this workout will provide the greatest boost to your cardiovascular capacity while also boosting your speed and power generation capacity as well.
One study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology also noted that after just two weeks of regular interval training such as this, the subjects in the research group showed marked improvements in terms of their capability to oxidize body fat. Therefore, over the long haul, this could really help you naturally stay leaner without as much ongoing effort.
All in all it’ll beat out all other cardio workouts any day of the week.
Another Great Read 
Implementing This Into Your Routine Properly
So if you’ve decided that you would like to go ahead and implement this protocol, it’s imperative you do so correctly. First, realize that since it is so intense, it’s not to be done daily.
Instead, do it every 2 or 3 days, aiming for two or three times per week. Also be sure to balance it out with your usual strength training as well. Avoid doing a leg weights workout and then doing the tabata the next day as it’ll be a little too much for your body to handle.
Make sure that you fuel up well before you do it also – an hour or two before eat a meal containing both protein and carbs, just as you would before a strength training session.
Then consider an energy enhancing, oxygen boosting supplement such as Gnarly Boost. It’ll give you the extra edge you need to get through this ultra-intense four minute session.
Finally, start slow. If at first you can’t quite make it through the full 8 rounds, just do four or six. Work your way up to being able to do the full 8 and you’ll see benefits starting to show right from day one.
If you want the most from your fitness regime, tabata training is a must-do.
