Do you find that your exercise program is the first thing to slide when things are busy? Whether you’re moving house, chasing a deadline or struggling to find a babysitter, it can be difficult to justify time at the gym when life gets frantic, even though a good workout can help you cope with stress, improve your sleep and calm you down.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend hours in the gym to reap the rewards of exercise. While the 2008 Physical Guidelines for Americans recommends doing a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week to achieve good health, swap moderate for high-intensity exercise and you can get the same benefits in half the time. That means a 15-minute jog will provide the same health benefits as a 30-minute walk.
The four-minute fix
Do you believe it’s possible to get fantastic results from workouts of just four minutes? Well, it’s true. Try out the Tabata training method and it will probably be the longest four minutes of your life but it will have a significant effect on your fitness.
Based on a 1996 study by Dr Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, the popular method involves super-intense exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for four minutes.
Originally intended as a rapid workout for the Japanese speed-skating team, Tabata is gaining popularity with everyone from elite athletes to everyday gym-goers.
"It certainly suits competitive personalities who have little time to exercise," trainer Lee Parore says. "But it can be a good way for anyone with a good base level of fitness to cut their training time. In fact, if you’ve been going to the gym regularly for a few months now could be a good time to try it – you need to add variety to your workout if you want your body to keep adapting."
It’s effective, despite its brevity, because the body continues to burn calories at a high rate during the recovery period. That’s why, Parore points out, it’s best done in the morning so that your metabolism can fire on full power for the rest of the day.
Discover a host of exercises that can be adapted to the Tabata training style
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An intense experience
New research by Canadian scientists has found that short, high-intensity exercise can deliver the same results as longer, endurance-style training, which is fantastic news if you struggle to squeeze hours of walking or cycling into your busy week.
“Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard, stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously,” said Martin Gibala, Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Canada.
In the study, published in the March issue of The Journal of Physiology, seven healthy young men who weren’t undertaking any structured exercise were studied. Participants took part in six training sessions over a two-week period, in which they cycled at a high intensity for 60 seconds, followed by a 75-second recovery period of low-intensity peddling.
The results showed that this interval type of exercise not only enhanced the men's physical fitness levels, but also improved their muscle mass and raised their metabolic rate too, so that they burned energy more efficiently.
Professor Gibala said, "Interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective and time-efficient. While still a very demanding form of training, the exercise might be more achievable by the general public – not just elite athletes – and it certainly doesn’t require the use of specialised laboratory equipment."
The reason interval training is so useful is that it can be adapted to suit any level of fitness. So, regardless of whether you’re a running pro who’s training for a marathon or simply a Sunday soccer fan, you could see the benefits by incorporating intervals into your workout.
Counting on the stopwatch
From push ups, seated dips and sit ups, to squats and lunges, timed strength workouts are about squeezing as many reps of a given exercise into a short time period. An example workout could include completing as many squats as possible in 15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds, followed by a short rest period or none at all, repeated as many times as possible in five minutes. The time of your set will depend upon your fitness level.
"This type of workout is most effective with compound exercises, such as the barbell clean and press, kettlebell squat press, dumbbell squat press or barbell squat press. These exercises work the major muscle groups," trainer Lee Parore says.
Parore also suggests walking or jogging to and from the gym as a way to cut down your warm up and cool down times.
Three fast strength workouts
The strength session
Aim for 3-4 rounds of this challenging strength workout. Rest 30-45 seconds between each round. Each round consists of:
- Squat press with dumbbells or kettlebells x 15 repetitions
- Your choice of pull downs, lat pull downs or assisted pull ups x 15 repetitions
- Lunges with a medicine ball or dumbbells x 15 repetitions each leg
- Push ups, either full push ups or on the knees – as many repetitions as possible before reaching ‘maximum’ i.e. where you physically can’t complete another rep
The boxing drill
Complete 3-4 rounds of this high-intensity workout. Rest 30-45 seconds between each round. Each round consists of:
- Boxing, various punches on the pads x 30 seconds
- Punching on the bag x 30 seconds
- Skipping x 30 seconds
- Push ups, either full push ups or on the knees – as many as possible in 30 seconds
Tabata rowing
- Complete 8 rounds of 20 seconds rowing followed by 10 seconds rest. Go as hard as your fitness allows you to during each 20-second work phase.
Alternatively, you can try Tabata training on a spin bike or stationary bike, with skipping, boxing, or resistance exercises such as squats, push ups and sit ups.
Three fast cardio workouts
The cardio session
- Bike x 7 minutes
- Rower x 5 minutes
- Stepper x 10 minutes
In this workout, aim to be working at 70-85% of your maximum heart rate. For a rough indication, simply subtract your age from 220. For example, a 30-year-old would have a maximum heart rate of around 190bpm (because 220 - 30 = 190). Use the heart rate sensors on the bike and stepper to gauge your intensity. On the rower, work at an intensity where you can talk but not sing.
Tabata rowing
- Complete 8 rounds of 20 seconds rowing followed by 10 seconds rest. Go as hard as your fitness allows during each 20-second work phase.
Alternatively, you can try Tabata training on a spin bike or stationary bike, with skipping, boxing, or resistance exercises such as squats, push ups and sit ups.
Running intervals
On the treadmill:
- Walk or jog x 1 minute – this is the rest phase
- Accelerate to a jog or run x 1 minute – this is the working phase
- Alternate between the rest and working phases for 10-15 minutes