Q & A: Better Results In 93% LESS Time

A friend of mine left me a voicemail message last night with this question about her workout, and since I hate giving free advice (people value it at $0 and do nothing with it) I decided to answer it on my Blog;-).

Q:  Last night I did a Tabata [explained in my reply] workout, do you think that 4min is enough for a workout?

A:  As always the answer depends.

BUT, before I get into that, let me make sure that everyone on the Blog know what a Tabata is.

Better Results In 93% LESS Time

In 1996 a Japanese researcher named Izumi Tabata discovered that you could do MORE to improve your fitness in 4min of very intense interval training than you could in an entire HOUR of regular old steady state aerobic training (such as jogging). (1)

The key word to take out of that previous paragraph is “FITNESS”, as in you will have better aerobic and anaerobic fitness with a Tabata vs. a one hour jog.  That is really cool IF your goal is to be better conditioned.

By the way, that is NO ONE’S goal.  Everybody comes in to me and gives me the politically correct answers up front, BUT what people really want is to look better naked.  And there is nothing wrong with that because you’ll do the health and fitness thing as a by-product of what it takes to look better naked.

The answer to my friend’s question is: “YES and NO.”  Yes, 2 to 3 Tabata’s will make a great fat-burning interval workout.  BUT, the hierarchy of fat-loss goes like this:

#1.  Eat better (did not say fewer calories)

#2.  Do metabolic resistance training (not bicep curls or leg extensions)

#3.  Do high intensity interval training (mush less important than #2)

I don’t think that most people will notice any difference from stuff like walking and jogging, so its pretty much just these 3.

So, if it was your interval day, then YES!  Good job.  If it was your lifting day, then NO.  A structured and long-term metabolic resistance training program will give you the biggest bang for your time invested.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 personal trainer for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.  You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

REFERENCES

1.  Tabata, I. Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and ?VO2max. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: Volume 28(10)October 1996pp 1327-1330