Thursday, July 5, 2012

Tabata Thursday

It is Thursday! For me that means it is almost the weekend.  Just need to get through the day.  Most of my co-workers took today off for a 5 day weekend so it is pretty quiet around here. 

A few months ago I heard about Tabata or H.I.I.T (high intensity interval training) workouts and I was intrigued.  Putting my body through a painfully tough workout? Sounds good to me.

The workouts are usually four minutes in total time, with 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds rest. You would think that finding the 4 minutes to try this would have been easy, but in fact it wasn't.  I kept putting it off and off, until recently I made it a priority to try it (partially because of The Fitnessista's Summer Shape up with Tabata workouts).  I decided to complete this little experiment with a new workout after an easy run on the weekend.  I wanted to be warmed up first before attempting anything.

Sunday I was up early for my easy run and when I got back I set up my computer (video examples) and my phone (tabata timer).  I had pre-selected two videos I wanted to try that morning - a regular tabata workout and then an extended tabata ab workout.


The regular tabata workout got my heart rate up immediately and by the end the 10 seconds rest was not enough. It was like a mini cardio blast and I was feeling pretty good (and sweating pretty good too).

I then moved onto the tabata ab workout.  I have been doing a lot of ab work in the past six months so I thought this would good for me to mix things up.  Once I started the sweat just starting dripping of me.  It wasn't so much that this was hard cardiovascularly for me, but my muscles were definitely working and making me sweat!

Often during this set, I had to stop and rest because I could not do the whole 50 seconds.  It was pretty intense and by the time I was done I had to wipe up the floor from all my dripping sweat.  Definitely an awesome way to end my workout for the day.


See...super sweattttty!!


I really enjoyed doing these types of workouts, ESPECIALLY since you can do them at home.  On the weekends sometimes I just do not want to go any where.  I like being at home and running from home and getting my workout in nice and early.  Having these types of workouts available makes doing strength training and ab work super easy.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!  I ran 8 miles to meet up with my friends running in a local 5k.  Then we all went back to a friends house for a delicious brunch!  I was so tired from all the fun and food (sugar coma!) that I took a 2.5 hour nap when we got home.

Early morning run + race spectating + yummy sticky buns + afternoon nap = Perfect 4th of July.

8 comments:

Marlene said...

Who knew such a quick workout could produce so much sweat! Nice work. Sounds like a perfect way to spend the holiday, too.

Kim said...

I love a workout that leaves me dripping in sweat! I took a quick glance at both the vids and can see how they would do that. I should give them a try.

Happy you had a nice fourth! :)

Elizabeth said...

Nice! I just watched the ab video-- that woman is crazy. Amazing body and definite sexual undertones in the way it was shot. LOL. Nice job on your core workouts!

Rena said...

I've sort of wanted to give tabata a try. Now I know to be prepared for a super sweaty time! Have you tried cross fit? That was my new workout for this month.

Jamie said...

Sounds great! Jillian Michaels DVDs are basically H.I.I.T. workouts and I DEFINITELY sweat during it!

Molly said...

now that's a workout! Good luck Sunday! I went to the expo today and got very excited, let me know where you think you'll be post race & I'll try to find you in the see of 15,000 runners! : )

Anonymous said...

Good job!! I was just looking for strength training I can do on my rest days. This sounds like a good option!

Anonymous said...

Way to go!! Those workouts sound intense but I bet they are awesome!