Day 6: It's Tabata Time!

That's right....it's time to do our Tabatas!  The best  part about this workout is that it doesn't take a lot of time but is VERY effective.

What are tabatas?

Tabatas were developed by Professor Izumi Tabata for Olympic Speedskaters.  He believed that if you trained to your maximum potential for a brief amount of time and then took a rest, it would be more effective than an moderate workout for a longer amount of time.  A true Tabata is only 4 minutes long and involves 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 second rest.  Repeat 8 times.  According this this theory, you should be completely maxed out by the end of four minutes.

So the exercises we'll be doing today, while they follow the 20/10 split, many would argue are actually High Intensity Interval Training (HIITs) because you are doing more than just one cycle.

Either way, the exercises are a fantastic workout that gets your heart rate up fast while working your core and strength.  Many studies also indicate that your metabolism will be increased for up to 36 hours after a HIIT/Tabata workout, which means you will be burning calories for a whole day after you finish your workout!

Many gyms offer Tabata/HIIT classes but I found this Summer Total Body Tabata Challenge which is four cycles of tabatas.  Give it a try!  If you do these regularly, you WILL see results.