Pairing Cardio With Tabata For A Complete Weekly Fitness Regimen

Tabata is an intense training methods that really delivers results. The Tabata protocol is an exercise regime where you workout in short, twenty second bursts of extremely high intensity.

These high intensity intervals are separated by ten-second rest periods, and you do eight of them for a classic Tabata exercise workout.

Be forewarned, Tabata is not for the weak or faint at heart. It is really intense, pushing yourself to the absolute max, with non-stop aggressive reps for each and every one of the 20 second intense intervals.

Tabata Moves

For the best all round results, you want to choose an exercise that targets several major muscle groups. Burpees can really get your heart going, and so can jump squats or even jumping jacks.

You don’t need to limit yourself to only one exercise, but, since you want to fire up your muscles up to their maximum ability and each exercise works out slightly different muscles, you may want to do a complete four minute Tabata workout with the first exercise, and take a little break before going on to the next. Or if you’re only up to one session, do one day and another the next.

Let’s suppose you decided to do high knees, which are, exaggerated walking/running in place where you bring the knees up to waist level every time you take a step-- and you’ve got some small weights you’ll bring up over your head as you bring up your knees, just to make sure your upper body is working too.

Set up a stopwatch so you’ll be able to easily track ten and twenty-second sessions. When time starts, go as fast as you possibly can. If it seems too easy, change out your weights for something a little heavier. You need to be exerting yourself as much as humanly possible.

Don’t lose your form, though—exercise without proper form will deliver you very little real benefit. If you find you’re just flailing your arms and legs, you need to slow down a little and may need to work on fluency with your chosen exercise before you work on making it Tabata intensity.

After twenty seconds, give yourself a ten second break. Ten seconds where you just stand there, gasping for breath if necessary. Then you go on with twenty seconds more of the high knees with that overhead lift.

If we follow our natural tendencies, the first twenty seconds may be pretty radical, red hot stuff. We’re motivated; we want to get healthy in just five minutes a day, and we’re fresh and excited to be doing this.

By round three, we’re feeling just a little bit less energetic. Our speed and intensity is tapering off. By the time we come to round seven and eight, were just going through the motions.

If that’s you and your workout, you’re not doing Tabata. For Tabata you need to keep yourself at the highest intensity through all 8 repetitions. It’s not the natural rhythm your body will be trying for.

But if you’ve got a little will power, you can push yourself to it. Remember, when the four minute bell rings, you’ll have completed the workout and be well on the way to a healthier you.

Pairing Cardio With Tabata

What happens when you pair the Tabata protocol with some intense cardio? You get a great weekly combination, a fitness regimen that will really fire up your cardiovascular system, yield optimal fat burning results and get you squarely on the road to a healthier you.

Tabata is an extreme workout and so it is not recommended for everyday use. Typically 3 or 4 times max per week is best.

So, a good strategy is to do your regular cardio on the other 3 or 4 days, and rest for one.

So a typical schedule might be, Monday, Wednesday and Friday Tabata.

Then Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday an hour on the treadmill, maybe 20 minutes of HIIT, some bike work or any other cardio that you enjoy and don’t forget to add some muscle toning on those cardio days as well.

This type of aggressive combination will yield fantastic results in transforming your body to a lean mean fat burning machine, and as long as you stick with a healthy diet, you will see truly amazing results.

Now go do it!