You’ve all heard it before: “Just 20 minutes of exercise per day is all you need to stay fit and healthy”. Personally, to find 20 minutes in my day to do anything for myself other than maintain an acceptable level of hygiene can be a challenge. So if I do find that time then I really want to make it count. Read on to discover the best way to achieve your physical best with this small window of time…
20 minutes of exercise doesn’t sound too hard, does it? However if you take that 20 minutes and team it up with a sadistic Japanese sports physiologist, you get a crazy little thing called Tabata. It’s a simple approach with devastating consequences: 20 seconds of any given activity followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8 times. Then pick another activity and repeat the process. Do this with 4 activities in total. Then throw up or pass out.
Seriously though, this is absolutely the most effective and intense combination of cardiovascular and muscle building exercise you can do in such a short period of time.
Sleep in and can’t go for that 10km jog before work? Tabata.
Only have a small window of opportunity before the baby wakes up from her midday sleep? Tabata.
Feel like you’ve got some excess energy after your double shot latte and have some time to kill before your next meeting? Tabata (just make sure your work colleagues understand your post Tabata shaking limbs and pallor are not symptoms of withdrawal from an extended drug habit).
The most common exercises incorporated into the Tabata workout are push ups, pull ups, plank, and squats. If you are feeling particularly masochistic you could throw in a round of burpees at the end. Take a minute between the end of one activity set and the beginning of the next to clear the dancing lights from your field of vision and have a brief but intense internal conversation about how you don’t really need to do that next round of pull ups because there are far more pressing concerns like scraping the scum off the inside of the garbage can lid.
You can download a number of free Tabata timer apps for smart phones that make sure you don’t “accidentally” speed up the counting process.
Sayonara!
