How To Do Tabata - The 4 Minute Workout

Tabata Workout & Benefits

Ho Ho Ho and happy HIITing!

Have you tried Tabata yet? 

This form of High Intensity Cardio is great when you’re super busy and may be traveling during the holiday season.   

Get ready to sleigh your core arms and legs with an effective heart raising sweat inducing Pilates workout! 

holiday hiit tabata pilates workout

Have no fear Santa Jessi is here to smile along through a workout with a yoga block and sliders.

Tabata is meant to be done at high intensity for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds.  It was studied to be very effective a training your heart and raising metabolism in a short amount of time.  It was discovered in 1996 in Japan by Dr. Izumi Tabata and he worked with Olympians to develop and test it.

Here are some of the benefits and facts:

Efficient at Fat Loss

If you’re like me and have been enjoying all the festive food of the season this is a quick and effective way to utilize some of he extra sugar.  Plus this has been proven to preserve muscles- which is not always the case with other forms of slow and steady long form cardio. 

Helps You Save Time

Tabata is typically done for 20 seconds at high blast intensity with a 10 second rest- 8 times in a row -for a total of 4 minutes.  It can be done with body weight exercises - no worrying about equipment or fancy transitions.  It will not be easy but it does go fast.

Anti aging

A fountain of youth in a cardio drill?  Who knew?  It has shown to increase mitochondria- which is cells renewing and regenerating.  Typically this slows as we age but this can reverse it.

Stay warm.. do tabata…

Stay warm.. do tabata…

Muscle Preserving

Dieting combined with  endurance based cardio can actually start to deteriorate your muscles with receptive motions.  By changing the exercises frequently we place less stress on the joints plus the rest periods help our protein stores to be reserved and fat stores used for fuel. The 8 minutes it takes can be so sustainable and not as hard on the joints

2-3 Times per week is ideal

Any more can  does not allow your muscles ample time to heal and can place repetitive stress on the joints

Warm up well before!  

You can walk march and jog in place for about 3 minutes and feel free to try a mobility routine of your own.  In the video below I give a quick warm up and cool down.

You do 8 rounds almost FULL intensity at 20 seconds immediately followed by a 10 second rest period for a total of 4 minutes- this is what makes it a little bit different than other forms of HIIT.

Other HIIt training is usually down at longer intervals with short rest.

You can do a 2 rounds and conditioning yourself up to 8 minutes once you build a solid foundation

Check out my Holiday tabata workout below! 

Im using a set of sliders and a yoga block for some Pilates inspired moves that will keep your heart pumping high. no sliders- use socks or paper plates or towels. No block- us a small pillow

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