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

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.