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Tabata Protocol – Complete Exercise Guide

Tabatas.

You may have head of them, you not have heard of them. Either way in this article I want to show you a great addition to your training and/or give you some hints and tips to make your Tabata training better.

I first learned about the Tabata protocol or ‘Tabatas’ back in 2004, in an article by strength coach Dan John. Here’s how the article opened:

A couple of years ago, a company came out with an exercise machine that guaranteed results in only four minutes a day. The main problem? The $12,000 price tag. My car doesn’t cost that much. I’m not sure I’ve ever spent that much on anything, including my education.

Well, I’m going to save you a lot of money today because I’m going to show you how to do the same thing without an overpriced machine. This “top secret” training method may do more for you than all your other training combined and leave you with 23 hours and 56 minutes to live the rest of your day.

But there’s a price to pay. Think exhaustion, vomit and pools of sweat.

That’s gotta get your attention right?

Vomit, Exhaustion, Pools of sweat….only 4 minutes?

Get Real.

In the article Coach John recommended that you use 1 of 2 exercises – thrusters or front squats. I figured I’d give it a try. That afternoon I went down to my basement to train(I trained in my basement when I was at the University of Vermont Medical School as the gym was hard to get to). The basement ceiling was low so I couldn’t do any overhead pressing movements while standing, thus thrusters were out. That left front squats. I loaded the bar up with 95lbs (easy right?), turned on the music, kept my eye on the clock, and started squatting. 4 minutes and 5 seconds later…I was on the floor.

Whoa. Who would have thought that exercising for just 4 minutes could literally bring you to your knees?

So what did I do? What is a Tabata?

A Tabata workout is a timed workout that is only 4 minutes long. It consists of 20 seconds of hard (intense) exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, and then you repeat this 8 times. Seems simple but it is really tough.

Tabatas are named after the a Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata whom conducted a study which examined the effect of this protocol vs. traditional 60 minutes aerobic workout. The 4 minute exercise group had to bike at 90 RPMs at 170% of VO2max (that’s not a typo). As you can see this is really hard and intense exercise. At the end of the 6 week study the 4 minute exercise group had improved both their aerobic and anaerobic markers of fitness – just exercising 4 minutes a day. The 60 minute aeorbic group improved their aerobic fitness (not as much as the 4 minute group) and saw no change in their anaerobic fitness.

This 4 minute training protocol seems magical, huh? It is but where a lot of people go wrong is that they get caught up in the magic of the 4 minutes and forget about how hard the people in the study were training (remember 170% of VO2max). You can’t do sit-ups using the Tabata protocol and expect big results.

As you can probably tell, in order complete a full Tabata, really complete it like in the study, you need to be in decent shape. Fortunately, you can work your way up to the full 20 seconds on/10 seconds off protocol by using different time variations.

• 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off x 8
• 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off x 8
• 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off x 8

Once you have picked what time variation suits you best, then it is time to pick an exercise.

Alywn Cosgrove once told me that one mistake he sees lots of people and trainers make is selecting skill based movements or movement that take a lot of time. An example of a bad exercise to do would be a Turkish Get Up. See the video below.

As you can see this is exercise takes skill and each rep takes time. How many of these could you possibly get in 20 seconds? Instead pick an exercise that using a lot of muscles and that you can really ‘bang out reps’ with.

Some examples are:

• Bodyweight Squats
• Thrusters
• Front Squats
• Kettlebell Swings
• Alternating Lunges
• Jump Squats
• Burpees

Using a stationary bike works well but treadmills do not as it takes too much time to get ramped up (unless you were going to just jump on and off the treadmill – which I’ve done before but for liability reasons don’t recommend).

Coach Robert Dos Remedios a.k.a. The Tabata Master also emphasizes the importance of intensity when completing a Tabata session. He jokes that if you can do 2 Tabatas after your workout then your training session isn’t tough enough or you aren’t hitting your first Tabata hard enough. He recommends adding a Tabata to the end of your workout as a great way of ‘finishing your body off.’

I highly recommend that you add Tabatas to your training. They are great when you are in a time crunch and perfect for elevating your metabolism so that you can take advantage of post workout calorie burning.

Let’s close out this article with some final tips from Dan John:

And remember this: you really shouldn’t consider doing much after the Tabata workout. Your lungs will be going like a locomotive engine. Go ahead and plan anything you like, but don’t be surprised if it just doesn’t happen. I keep the family dog nearby to chase the carrion birds away while I rest on the sidewalk.

The hardest thing about this workout is staying focused for four minutes. Don’t let your hands leave the bar or dumbbells, if you can help it. After you put the bar in the rack during the front squat, stay right there, an inch or two back from the bar, and stare at the second hand of the clock.

If you do thrusters, put the dumbbells on a bench and watch the clock with your hands ready. This little trick of staying with the weight seems to help make those ten seconds seem like, well, not much, really! But at least you don’t have to move much to get the weights again.

I do either Tabata front squats or Tabata thrusters about twice a month. I’m sure someone will comment, “If it’s so good, why don’t you do it every day?” Go ahead, try it and report back after the second day. The Tabata Method – [T-Nation]

I’ve recently received a pre-release copy of some audio tracks called “Ultimate Tabatas“. They are music tracks with verbal cues (eg. ’start, stop, etc’) which take you through a Tabata workout. With these audios you don’t need to keep your eye on the clock you and just focus on training as hard as possible. I’m hooked on them and highly recommend that you pick them up if you do or plan on doing Tabata workout. You can get Ultimate Tabatas here.

Post a Comment. Let Me Know What You Think.

Your Vitamins Don’t Work

Every where you turn in the media (and supermarket) you are being sold on the latest and greatest nutrient and supplement. Vitamin and Mineral sales are though the roof (+$20 billion per year) and all those companies want your money.

But do vitamins even work?

Think about it for a second. You probably take a multivitamin everyday (or almost every day). How to you know it is working? Maybe you take a specific vitamin or mineral each day – Vitamin C, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin B-6. Why do you take these? How do you know that they are working?

These are questions that many people don’t ask or don’t care to; they just blindly take their vitamins because the bottle says “aids in healthy energy metabolism”. It is important to realize that most ‘claims’ on vitamin bottles are based on biochemical pathways and not studies done in humans. For example, particular vitamins are needed for your body to turn glucose into energy. Once you have adequate amounts of these vitamins MORE doesn’t make your body better at converting glucose to energy – they don’t tell you this on the label.

Supplementing with individual vitamins usually doesn’t do anything. In fact one study showed that beta-carotene supplementation negatively impacted the health of smokers (yes, taking the supplement decreased their health). Let’s look at another vitamin – the coveted vitamin E. If you look at the results from 19 different trials you’d see that daily high dose vitamin E supplementation (>400 I.U. which is normally 2 capsules) for a year or more led to an increase in mortality!

In 1998, the US government added folic acid to the ‘fortification list’ in order to help prevent neural tube defects (neural tube defects can be caused when a pregnant mother has a folic acid deficiency). The good news is that the incidence of neural tube defects has decreased by as much as 50%. The bad news is that this increase in folic acid consumption may be leading to increased and accelerated dementia in the elderly (due to undiagnosed vitamin B12 deficiency which is hidden by excessive folic acid intakes).

The lax regulations of the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act have allowed for many unscrupulous companies to have a field day producing garbage supplement and vitamin blends while putting ridiculous claims on labels that hide behind “This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease”? disclaimer.

When taking vitamins, minerals, or any other dietary supplement it is important to do your research. Know that the supplement industry is not well regulated. Only do business with quality and reputable companies. And most of all use supplements to ’supplement’ your intake. No one got sicker by eating too much spinach.

For more truth on dietary supplements just go to http://www.strongfitandhealthy.com and I’ll ship you (for free) the dvd “The Truth About Dietary Supplements” (you just need to cover $4.95 S&H – pretty good deal huh?).

5 Tips for Healthy Eating While Traveling

Healthy eating while traveling is an ever growing issue for many people as more and more meals are eaten away from home. Unfortunately eating out and on the road can be very challenging if you are not prepared. Here are 5 tips to help you stay lean and healthy while traveling.

1. Always go low carb – Restaurant and packaged foods are always loaded with extra ‘hidden carbs’. Always choose the lower carb options when eating out – avoid traditional snack foods, breads, pasta dishes, etc. Stick to lean meats and vegetables when eating out.

2. Tell them not to bring it – A bread basket, french fries, or a side of potato chips are standard for many restaurant meals. Don’t temp yourself just ask your server not to bring it to the table or with your meal.

3. Know what you are going to eat – When traveling it is best to have some snacks with you and when you go out to eat have a general idea of what you are going to order. You’ll be less likely to be swayed by tempting calorie filled menu options.

4. Have a back up - Nothing is worse than being stuck in the car or in an airport with nothing to eat. You’ll get hungry and end up making bad choices (”There is nothing else around I guess I’ll have to eat the steak and cheese”). Keep a couple protein bars with you for back up. They travel well and don’t spoil.

5. Don’t Eat! – Seriously. This one isn’t for everyone. I’ve written about fasting for weight loss before, if you are someone that uses intermittent fasting to lose weight then you can follow fasting expert Brad Pilon’s lead and plan your fasts while you are traveling. Brad once told me that whenever he has to fly he always arranges it to be during a fast so he isn’t tempted by awful travel food.

Use some of these tips or use them all! Whatever you do don’t let traveling be your excuse for not staying lean and healthy.

-Mike

P.S. To learn the A-Z plan for eating healthy and losing weight permanently pick up your copy of Naked Nutrition today.

The Slim Fast Effect – A Simple Weight Loss Solution

If you are like me then you don’t actually like the dieting process – you like the end result. That is why when I need to drop a couple pounds I like to do it as fast and as simple as possible. I’ve written about how to accelerate your fat loss before (and have created the Warp Speed Fat Loss program to make it very easy for people to lose 20lbs) but today I wanted to talk about simple dieting and using food repetition to make it even simplier.

One thing I know is true – simple works.

Let’s look at Slim Fast as an example.

Tommy Lasorda (you remember him from the Slim Fast commercials right?) would have a shake a breakfast, a shake at lunch, and would try not to eat his entire kitchen for dinner. Guess what? He lost weight (the kind of weight, speed of weight loss, and if he kept it off is a whole different story). Tens of thousands of people have taken this Slim Fast approach to weight loss and succeed (for a short time period at least).

Why does this work?

1. Easy to follow – Drink a shake now. Drink a shake later. It doesn’t get easier than that.
2. Controls Calories – 1 shake has a set amount of calories. You’re can’t overeat with a shake.
3. Fast – Open shake and drink. Who doesn’t have time for that?

The main problem is that the Slim Fast shakes are garbage. You can do a lot better for your body and enhance your fat loss by making a couple simple tweaks.

1. Make your shakes protein dominant – Find a good protein powder that don’t ruin the taste of your shakes.
2. Get a blend of fats – Use walnuts, flaxseed oil, etc
3. Ante up with Antioxidant – Add freeze dried fruits/vegetables (i.e. Superfood, Greens+, Emerald Balance, etc), frozen blueberries, cherries, etc
4. Fill Up with Fiber – Have a couple glucomannan capsules, Benefiber or add flaxmeal to your shakes for added fiber.

Now that we’ve enhanced the nutrition of your shakes, it is time to apply the Slim Fast principles –

Easy to Follow - You’ll drink 2 or 3 shakes per day in place of breakfast, lunch, and/or two ’snack’ meal during the day. You choose what works best with your schedule.

Control Calories – Have a set recipe for your shakes so that they have the same amount of calories each time. For example 1.5 scoops of protein power, 1 TBSB of flaxseed oil or 3 TBSP Walnuts, 1/2 cup of berries.

Fast - Make them all at once. I use a Magic Bullet for this part. The Magic Bullet is probably the best thing I have purchased for our kitchen in a long time. Pull out three Magic Bullet cups/shakers, add water and all the food, blend, pop on the lids, and you’re good to go. Making 3 shakes this way takes about 5 minutes (seriously it is that fast).

If you need to lose weight but ‘don’t have the time to diet’ then you should take advantage of the Slim Fast Effect and use shakes to jumpstart your weight loss. If you are a Faster Fat Loss Zone member I have 2 part article on making the ultimate shakes –> Part 1 and Part 2.

Not a member? Click Here to Sign up and get $237 of Free Fast Loss Goodies just for trying it out.

Fish Oil Martinis & Making Kids Skinny Before They are Born

How powerful is fish oil in regards to boosting health? VERY powerful. Check out some of the newer findings regarding fish oil and health.

Fish Oil Fights Obesity In Kids Before It Even Starts – Higher maternal intake of n-3 LC-PUFAs in pregnancy was associated with lower childhood adiposity at age 3, suggesting that western diets low in n-3 LC-PUFAs favor the development of adiposity later in life.

Fish Oil Reduces Hot Flashes (I’ve written about fish oil and hot flashes before) – Supplementation of post-menopausal women with ethyl-EPA for 8 weeks was associated with a significant 55% decrease in the frequency of hot flashes compared with women consuming a placebo, but the intensity of the hot flashes was unaffected. Supplementation of a similar group of women experiencing post-menopausal psychological distress with both EPA (1.0 g/day) and DHA (150 mg/day) was without effect on psychological distress, but in women with major depression, n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation was associated with a significant improvement in psychological distress and depression compared with the placebo.

Corn Oil Breaks Bone? -  The effect of PUFAs on bone mineral density has attracted attention because of the loss of bone mass in the elderly and the importance of accruing bone mass during growth. A study of the relationship between bone mineral density and serum phospholipid n-6 PUFAs in 8-year old children reported that linoleic acid was inversely associated with bone density in the total body, lumbar spine and hip, but that ARA was positively associated with bone density in the total body and hip. Omega-3 PUFAs were unrelated to bone density.

Forget The Carrots for Better Vision -  The likelihood of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration was significantly lower in people with the highest intake of DHA. Risk was further reduced in people who consumed aspirin more than 5 times/week and had high DHA intakes.

More Fish = More Focus (and happier parents) – Behavior and learning disorders in children cover a spectrum with overlapping symptoms and distinct subsets of characteristics. In children with attention deficit with or without hyperactivity (ADHD), inattention may be the greatest impairment. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, a large subgroup of children with inattention experienced a 47% reduction in ADHD symptoms after 6 months’ supplementation with n-3 LC-PUFAs containing a small amount of ?-linolenic acid. Another controlled trial in ADHD children using only EPA reported significant treatment benefits related to the predominant behavioral subtype, not in the overall sample. Responses were the greatest in children with the lowest EPA concentrations at baseline.

“I’ll have martini, shaken not stirred with a splash of fish oil” -  Chronic alcoholism depletes DHA in the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain and reduces DHA incorporation and turnover. These changes are thought to impair neurotransmission.

To learn more about fish oil, creatine, protein powder, greens products, BCAAs, forskolin, hoodia, nitric oxide stimulators, multivitamins and a whole slew of other supplements go to StrongFitandHealthy.com to get your free copy of The Truth About Dietary Supplement (I’ll even pay the shipping and handling).

ISSFAL 2008 Highlights [via Fats of Life]

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