Give tabatas a try

Published 5:06 pm Saturday, February 7, 2015

This week, we would like to take a slightly different approach in helping you stay fit, healthy and happy. We would like to introduce you to a certain type of routine straight from your very own Factor X personal trainers — tabata!

Tabatas are one of our favorite types of workouts of all time.

They’re short, incredibly effective and mindblowingly hard if you do them right — everything that comprises a good workout.

Now, we always want to see your faces at the gym, but maybe you can’t make a day this week or the weather stops you from getting out and about this week. We’ve heard rain is coming sometime this week, right? Well, have no fear! You can complete this workout in the comfort of your own home if you like.

Here are some ideas of when to do a Tabata workout:

· When you’re busy, and you don’t even have 12 minutes

· When you’re fatigued but still want to fit in a quick workout

· In the morning to get your metabolism going

· Any time you’re craving a little sweat-inducing, crazy hard exercise that takes zero time

What is this Tabata?

Simply put, in each round, you will be doing 20 seconds “on” and 10 seconds “off,” twice, for each exercise. No cheating our 20/10 ration — the 20/10 ratio has been shown to work both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways harder and more effectively than longer bouts of exercise.

You will do two four-minute rounds of butt-busting, fat-burning exercise with a full two-minutes of active test in between. The active rest is just that — active. Don’t let yourself sit down and don’t lie down. Instead, do whatever kind of movement your energy allows.

For example, if you are feeling beat, just pace around the room or march in place slowly. If, on the other hand, you feel as though you have plenty of energy left, do jumping jacks, lateral jumps or even jumping lunges if you really want to push yourself and kick up the fat burn.

So without further ado, here is your Tabata at-home workout:

4 tounds: 20 seconds on/10 seconds off — 20-minute time cap

– Air squat

– Pushup

-Situp

-Frog jump (or for modification duck walk)

-Tricep dip off of chair or couch

How many calories does this high intensity interval workout burn?

Depending on your intensity (actual exertion of effort), weight, height and gender, you can expect to burn between 8 and 15 calories a minute doing this fat-burning routine. That’s a whooping 168-315 calories for just 20 minutes of effort.

That estimation doesn’t even take into account the elevated calorie burn that you will have for the next 24-48 hours.

This type of training is a great option for when you are too busy for a full workout. The best way to use this workout is in combination with regular endurance cardio. For example, on the days of the week when you don’t have a full hour to exercise, do a quick routine like this one. When you have a little extra space in your schedule, do 30-60 minutes of lower-impact, sustained cardio such as light jogging, the elliptical, walking or swimming, but obviously no swimming right now. Brrr.

Make sure that you drink plenty of water after this workout so that you don’t end up dehydrated. Also, remember to be kind to your body nutritionally after a workout like this one. The last thing you want to do after making your body work so hard is to eat junk food!

After your workout, follow our five-minute cool down and stretch routine:

Five-minutes cool down and stretch; 60 seconds of each

• Butt kickers

• Slow butt kickers with arm swings in front

• Crossover toe touch stretches

• Standing quad Stretches

• Wall chest stretches