ChrisPoole
Majorly Motivated Mofo
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to create this post to get a general view of the kind of exercise you have all been doing to reach your goals?
My hope is that SW members will be able to refer to this and learn new and exciting ways to exercise and burn off some extra pounds.
The particular type of training I'd like to tell you all about is something I learned about whilst I was in the Army. It's a very quick and effective way to exercise and the results you get from it are absolutely amazing.
Tabata Training
Brief History
Now the theory behind this training is that instead of having to do 45 mins - 1 hour of cardiovascular exercise a day you can do 4 minutes of hard exercise a day and get even better results. I know it sounds too good to be true however a man called Dr Izumi Tabata carried out a scientific experiment with 2 individual groups of athletes to see if this method of training works or not. Group 1 where told to train 1 hour a day for 5 days a week at 70% Intensity for a total of 6 weeks. Group 2 where told to train 4 days a week for 4 minutes using the Tabata method.
At the end of the 6 week experiment Group 1 had a significant increase in the aerobic system (cardiovascular system). However, the anaerobic system (muscles) gained little or no results at all. Group 2 had a much higher increase in the aerobic system compared to Group 1 however, they also had a 25% increase in the anaerobic system (muscles) as well which meant not only did they get fitter but they also developed more muscle as well. All of this from doing just 4 minutes exercise a day for 4 days a week. Even more importantly it is proven to burn more fat than a 1 hour run and it continues burning fat for a long while after you've stopped.
How to train using Tabata
Any exercise can be incorporated into the Tabata training. However the basic outline of the Tabata training method are as follows:
Now the beauty of Tabata training is that you can use it for absolutely any exercise, I personally have a 10 minute slow jog on a running machine to start with as a warm up and then I use the Cross Trainer, Bike Machine and Rowing Machine as my individual exercises (4 minutes on each). But believe me, you can literally use it doing any kind of exercise. For example: Press ups, Sit ups, Sprints, Running up and down stairs (be careful!), lifting weights, walking at a fast pace etc. The main thing is that you work hard enough to raise your heart rate and get yourself out of breathe.
Now I know their will be lots of people who refuse to believe that this works but I can promise you it does work and that it works so well the British Army have implemented into part of their regular training regimes (they did at my last regiment anyway).
If anyone would like any further advice or information on this method or has any questions then I'd be more than happy to help. Please feel free to share your workouts as well because it will help everyone.
Enjoy!
Chris
I just wanted to create this post to get a general view of the kind of exercise you have all been doing to reach your goals?
My hope is that SW members will be able to refer to this and learn new and exciting ways to exercise and burn off some extra pounds.
The particular type of training I'd like to tell you all about is something I learned about whilst I was in the Army. It's a very quick and effective way to exercise and the results you get from it are absolutely amazing.
Tabata Training
Brief History
Now the theory behind this training is that instead of having to do 45 mins - 1 hour of cardiovascular exercise a day you can do 4 minutes of hard exercise a day and get even better results. I know it sounds too good to be true however a man called Dr Izumi Tabata carried out a scientific experiment with 2 individual groups of athletes to see if this method of training works or not. Group 1 where told to train 1 hour a day for 5 days a week at 70% Intensity for a total of 6 weeks. Group 2 where told to train 4 days a week for 4 minutes using the Tabata method.
At the end of the 6 week experiment Group 1 had a significant increase in the aerobic system (cardiovascular system). However, the anaerobic system (muscles) gained little or no results at all. Group 2 had a much higher increase in the aerobic system compared to Group 1 however, they also had a 25% increase in the anaerobic system (muscles) as well which meant not only did they get fitter but they also developed more muscle as well. All of this from doing just 4 minutes exercise a day for 4 days a week. Even more importantly it is proven to burn more fat than a 1 hour run and it continues burning fat for a long while after you've stopped.
How to train using Tabata
Any exercise can be incorporated into the Tabata training. However the basic outline of the Tabata training method are as follows:
- 4 minutes long (per exercise) *You can incorporate as many exercises into it as you like however I limit myself to 3 per session (12 mins in total).
- 20 seconds of intense training (literally as hard as you can go)
- 10 seconds of rest (yes this means you can actually stop the exercise and rest)
- Total of 8 sessions.
Now the beauty of Tabata training is that you can use it for absolutely any exercise, I personally have a 10 minute slow jog on a running machine to start with as a warm up and then I use the Cross Trainer, Bike Machine and Rowing Machine as my individual exercises (4 minutes on each). But believe me, you can literally use it doing any kind of exercise. For example: Press ups, Sit ups, Sprints, Running up and down stairs (be careful!), lifting weights, walking at a fast pace etc. The main thing is that you work hard enough to raise your heart rate and get yourself out of breathe.
Now I know their will be lots of people who refuse to believe that this works but I can promise you it does work and that it works so well the British Army have implemented into part of their regular training regimes (they did at my last regiment anyway).
If anyone would like any further advice or information on this method or has any questions then I'd be more than happy to help. Please feel free to share your workouts as well because it will help everyone.
Enjoy!
Chris