Everyone says that life is too short, so cherish it. Once you lose a minute, or an hour of your life, you’ll never get it back. I totally agree with that. Carpe diem; Seize the day.
What if I told you that you can extend your life? Well maybe not extend it, but you can make it seem longer. What I'm about to share with you is a secret. Okay, it's not secret because many people know about it, but it's DEFINITELY something that is overlooked.
I’m going to discuss High Intensity Training (HIT) for a second. Now, when I mention HIT training, many people get a bad taste in their mouth and start to tune out. For those of you who are still with me, I’m going to discuss a very effective HIT workout, which is called Tabata training. This is a 4 minute workout that will undoubtedly extend your life. Why do I say that? Because while you are doing it, you will think that this is the longest 4 minutes of your life. So what is the Tabata workout, why is it so beneficial and how come it’s so tough?
Any exercise can be incorporated into Tabata training. However the basic outline of the Tabata training method is as follows:
• 4 minutes long (whole Tabata Session)
• 20 seconds of intense training
• 10 seconds of rest
• Total of 8 sessions or rounds
Typically this is used for cardio sessions such as a bike or an elliptical. But to make things extremely intense and fun, try to incorporate it into your weight training or even calisthenics.
To prove to you how much your life can be prolonged, try doing the Tabata workout with the front squat exercise. Only use 95 lbs on the bar. Do not get too eager and go heavier, especially the first time doing it. Follow the basic rules of Tabata with the additional rule of keeping your score. In the 20 seconds of work, count how many reps you perform for each round. The goal is to get as many reps as possible. Then record the total reps for the work out. Next time you work out, try to beat that score. There are other ways to keep score as well, but this is the simplest way. Trying to beat your total score will definitely be a great challenge.
Hope that you guys enjoy this because I just prolonged your life by quite some time.
Here is a video of my client Chris doing the work out. Check it out
To learn more about Tabata training and its origins check out http://tabatatraining.org/?p=18
Questions or comments email me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
How Nutrition Has Direct Influence on Performance
Anyone who is serious about their health and fitness goals realizes by now that nutrition is what drives their progress. This is what sets you up for success or failure. How you prepare your meals and what you put into your system has a huge and direct effect on the work out. For example, I have a new client who is out of shape and overweight. I’ll call this client Bob. I discussed the importance of nutrition with him and everyone in his life that wants him to succeed. We have been training for 3 months now and slow, steady progression has been shown in both strength and in weight loss. Where this turned into an experiment is when I had Bob do burpees for time. Remember this is the first time that my client was introduced to this exercise, so it was expected that his first time should be the slowest, with the assumption that as this exercise is performed more often, the times should improve. So here is the work out as follows:
On Wednesday, 45 burpees took 16:45; first attempt at the exercise.
He ate a good breakfast, consisting of eggs and sausage.
The following Monday, 50 burpees took 22:06. Only 5 more burpees than the first workout and it took almost 6 minutes longer.
He felt lightheaded throughout the exercise.
He ate a poor breakfast; only had potatoes and orange juice.
Then Wednesday he performed 80 burpees for time. And since he was doing well, I decided to record the times for the 45 and 50 reps as well.
So for 45 reps, his time was 11:36, which is a great improvement from the first time doing it.
For 50 reps, it was 12:51 which is a 10 minute difference from the 50 reps 2 days prior. Finally, 80 reps for. 19:49; which crushed his time from the Monday work out by 3 minutes less with 30 extra reps of burpees.
His breakfast consisted of eggs and bacon with orange juice. A complete breakfast. All the macronutrients were present; protein, fats and carbs. This breakfast was exactly what his body needed to outperform his previous workouts, which is what’s to be expected when eating well and exercising: Improvement.
Many people exercise, but they don't realize how important nutrition is to their performance and results. Anyone can go to the gym and throw weights around, but for it to be an effective exercise program, many other aspects need to be filtered in, such as flexibly and mobility, nutrition, rest and recovery and the actual set up of the exercise program.
Train for success; don't waste your valuable time and effort at the gym.
This little experiment was a great way to demonstrate that what we do outside the gym such as sleep, rest, food and nourishment for the body is what gets us the most results especially when it comes to training at the gym.
Always go back to the basics. For a good basic guide on nutrition check out Nutrition101.
On Wednesday, 45 burpees took 16:45; first attempt at the exercise.
He ate a good breakfast, consisting of eggs and sausage.
The following Monday, 50 burpees took 22:06. Only 5 more burpees than the first workout and it took almost 6 minutes longer.
He felt lightheaded throughout the exercise.
He ate a poor breakfast; only had potatoes and orange juice.
Then Wednesday he performed 80 burpees for time. And since he was doing well, I decided to record the times for the 45 and 50 reps as well.
So for 45 reps, his time was 11:36, which is a great improvement from the first time doing it.
For 50 reps, it was 12:51 which is a 10 minute difference from the 50 reps 2 days prior. Finally, 80 reps for. 19:49; which crushed his time from the Monday work out by 3 minutes less with 30 extra reps of burpees.
His breakfast consisted of eggs and bacon with orange juice. A complete breakfast. All the macronutrients were present; protein, fats and carbs. This breakfast was exactly what his body needed to outperform his previous workouts, which is what’s to be expected when eating well and exercising: Improvement.
Many people exercise, but they don't realize how important nutrition is to their performance and results. Anyone can go to the gym and throw weights around, but for it to be an effective exercise program, many other aspects need to be filtered in, such as flexibly and mobility, nutrition, rest and recovery and the actual set up of the exercise program.
Train for success; don't waste your valuable time and effort at the gym.
This little experiment was a great way to demonstrate that what we do outside the gym such as sleep, rest, food and nourishment for the body is what gets us the most results especially when it comes to training at the gym.
Always go back to the basics. For a good basic guide on nutrition check out Nutrition101.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)