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HIIT or
High-Intensity-Interval-Training
Mark Lauren, from You Are Your Own Gym describes a Tabata as follows:
“8 Rounds of 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, for a total of 4 minutes.
- Find an exercise pace that you are able to maintain throughout all eight sets, but only with great difficulty.
- Ideally, there shouldn’t be any twenty-second work period with a significant drop-off in reps performed.
This is high-intensity training.”
EXAMPLE:
Choose one exercise, such as: High Knees or Burpees.
NOTE: I like to start with a 10 second Rest Interval at the beginning, just to get ready.
Round 1: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 2: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 3: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 4: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 5: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 6: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 7: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
Round 8: 10 sec. Rest Interval + 20 second Maximum Effort Interval of High Knees
That’s it! The above all adds up to 4 Minutes of Interval Training.
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You can get creative and add variations such as:
Round 1: High Knees
Round 2: Mountain Climbers
Round 3: Jump Squats
Round 4: Tricep Dips
Then repeat Rounds 1 -4, a second time for a total of 8 Rounds to equal a total of 4 Minutes.
As you can imagine, sticking with one exercise throughout is much more challenging. However, having said that, for beginners it is much more palatable to switch up the exercises until a certain level of proficiency with technique is met as well as building up one’s level of fitness.
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- The best part about these short duration HIIT workouts is that they are invigorating NOT depleting. The entire point of exercise (in my opinion) is to add benefits to one’s life not detract from it. If we’re so wiped out from a workout that we don’t have any juice left to enjoy our day or do what needs to get done, but rather have to veg out on the couch…isn’t that missing the boat?
- But seriously, there is something we need to talk about…These short workouts are meant to be very intense and short for a reason. There is a tendency to become addicted to HIIT and want to do more in one session than is required for the purpose. The purpose is to become strong, agile, increase aerobic capacity and build power. Keep it short and sweet and we will achieve these things; Go beyond and we negate what we set out to do. Overuse injuries start to creep in slowly and we will be no further ahead. Sure we may look more buff, but that is superficial and that will soon fade along with the inability to workout. I’ve been there, this happened to me too in the beginning…the high I got from my short HIIT workouts pumped me up so much that I wanted to do another workout right then and there. I felt so powerful and fired up. It is really important to identify this in ourselves and remember that these workouts are not meant to be endurance training.
- All that matters is that your scores reflect 100% effort compared only with yourself. You know when you’re giving it your ALL. I think it’s important that our self-talk is encouraging. If you’re slacking off, then that’s another story entirely…but if you are going for it, minding your form/ technique, you’re there. You show up, you do your training – everyday for the rest of your life. That’s it in a nutshell: welcome to daily body maintenance!