Issue 047
March 2009
By Barry Gibson. At the time of writing it’s coming to the end of the festive season, and pretty much everyone has overdone it with food and drink! To begin the work for the coming year I’m giving you a nice little protocol to kick-start your fitness (and fat loss if applicable).
So, on with the workouts for this month. I thought we’d go kitless - in terms of equipment, not clothing! You really have no excuses, you don’t need equipment and your routines can vary in duration according to the time available.
You may be familiar with the Tabata set-up, where you perform a four-minute block of exercise, (specifically: 20 seconds of hard, intense work followed by ten seconds of rest). That is, if you follow the original plan formulated by the good Doctor Izumi Tabata.
There are several variations to the normal Tabata so this month we’ll look at some that have been scaled for various fitness levels. The easiest way to vary a Tabata is by tweaking the timescale, as follows:
- 20 sec work / 10 sec rest (this is a ‘normal’ Tabata)
- 15 sec work / 15 sec rest (for intermediate athletes)
- 10 sec work / 20 sec rest (for beginners)
Scaling the time is a good way to change the pace and intensity of your workout. Another is to perform only one exercise for each of the four minute blocks, e.g. press-ups for 20 seconds, rest for ten seconds, then stick with press-ups for the remainder of the four minutes. Then you’ll move onto the next exercise, and perform that for four minutes. Obviously, this method is much harder in terms of overloading a specific muscle. If you prefer a circuit-type format then you may want to take your exercises in turn. For this method, try the following workout:
- Burpees 20 sec
- Rest 10 sec
- Press-up 20 sec
- Rest 10 sec
- Squats 20 sec
- Rest 10 sec
- Squat thrusts 20 sec
- Rest 10 sec
(Note: For a four-minute block, perform the above twice through.)
With Tabatas you can select a whole host of exercises and put yourself through a circuit ranging from four minutes through to 32 minutes, or even longer if you like!
Fitness permitting, for maximum benefit use the 20 sec work / 10 sec rest ratio and perform each drill for the four-minute block before progressing to the next movement. The above routine will give you 16 minutes of work time, but the benefits for fitness and fat loss are exceptional! Due to the nature of the routine, your metabolism will stay elevated for longer after your workout is over.
This phenomenon is known as the excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC ). Tidy up your diet and add these into your weekly schedule and you’ll notice a massive difference in your fitness and bodyfat levels. If you’re a die hard mixed martial artist you will get loads of benefit by using this format as it is applicable to combat sports due to the intermittent style of the routines.
You could also substitute a more specific set of exercises, such as sprawls, pummelling, punch-out drills, pick-ups with a partner, or anything else MMA-related!
Have a play around with these and see what fits you and your level best. Make sure you make time to train though. If there’s one thing I hate to hear, it’s “I don’t have time to train”. Bollocks! Anyone, and I mean absolutely anyone, has time to train. Two to four Tabata rounds will kick your lardy behind into shape in no time!
Barry Gibson is a kettlebell and fitness instructor based in North East England. A strength and conditioning trainer to MMA fighters, he holds a third dan in judo. Any questions or queries can be directed to [email protected].
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