Four Minute Fat Burn

Being in the gym for hours on end doesn’t appeal to me, and I enjoy my training! Therefore i can’t see that it is particularly appealing to someone who finds the gym a bit of an effort and struggles with motivation.

This can be a problem of the past! There are many, many studies into training durations and intensities for optimum fat loss. One form of training which i have found effective and time saving for me and my clients is tabata training.

Tabata training was discovered by Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo

Dr. Tabata discovered that this kind of interval training produces much better results than aerobic training. This included building as much muscular endurance as forty five minutes of normal cardio training. In fact in the study the subjects increased their anaerobic capacity by over a quarter as well a substantial increase in their aerobic fitness. Something to keep in mind was that these subjects already had a good level of fitness before they started so improvements were remarkable.

Tabata is also really effective for weight loss as well most improving performance in most aerobic and anaerobic sports.

The best part of tabata training is that its only four minutes long! As mentioned before its very versatile and adaptable and can be tailored for different fitness levels and goals. The main principle is simple:

Perform an exercise for 20 seconds as hard as you can, have 10 seconds rest. Repeat this 8 times.

Here are a few examples of 4 minute tabata’s that you may find useful:

1.     Bike: 20 second sprint on a high resistance, 10 seconds recovery on a low resistance x 8

2.     Whole Body movement: Perform a barbell clean and press, but when you put the bar down jump your legs out into a press up position and perform a press up. Then jump your legs back into the bar to start the clean and press again. You should be able to complete 3-4 repetitions in the twenty seconds of work.

3.     4 different exercises: this is very HARD!: Standing squats, press ups, squat thrusts, burpees. Do 20 seconds of each exercise, 10 seconds rest and repeat to make up the 4 minutes.

I found the best way to use this in your workout is to do a few of varying types/intensities, or perform one really tough one at the end of your workout.

At ActivZone Gym we like to keep up to date with the latest and most effective training methods for achieving and sustaining your goals, in the fastest and safest way.

For more information please contact us 01483 448666 or visit our website www.activzone.co.uk.