A 4-minute Tabata workout using burpees, squat jumps, mountain climbers, and kick-throughs. Twenty seconds of maximal effort, ten seconds rest, repeated eight times. The host estimates it burns 100 to 200 calories and leaves him gassed after three minutes.
Chapters
So, just finished some workout here. We did the rings, we did some handstand holds on the bars. My dogs are chewing apart an egg carton and a stick at the moment. Good on you, girls. Did some bar work, did some lunges. But now we're gonna finish off with probably one of my favorite forms of cardio, Tabata training. Reason why I like it so much is because it's only 4 minutes. And trust me, 4 minutes doesn't sound like a long time, but when you're working as hard as you can, 4 minutes is a long time. So that's the idea with Tabata. You do 20 seconds on, and by on I mean sprinting as hard as you can, and 10 seconds rest, and you repeat that 8 times, ending up with a total of 4 minutes. And so what I'm going to do is 4 different exercises. So you can sub in any exercise you want. I prefer exercises that incorporate multiple body parts because that sort of, I don't know, exhausts me more than singular body parts. And I'm going to repeat them, I'm going to do 4 exercises and repeat them twice each, and that'll get me a total of 8 rounds. So the first exercise is going to be burpees, followed up by squat jumps, followed up by mountain climbers, followed up by something I just learned, which is sidekicks. Is that right, Joey? Kickthroughs. Kickthroughs. Kickthroughs. So the fourth exercise might be a bit sketchy, but we're going to give it a go. And how am I tracking this? I'm using this simple app here, Tabata, free on the App Store. It's just really basic. And essentially, once I hit play, it'll give me a timer, it'll give me a countdown of 3 seconds, and then it'll just time me for 20 seconds, time the 10 seconds rest. You can do it with any stopwatch, and the beauty of these exercises is that I'm only using my body weight, right? But I like using the app because I don't have to keep an eye on the stopwatch. It'll just call out the instructions for me. So let's get into it.
Starting your Tabata workout. Get ready.
First exercise, burpees. So 20 seconds on exercise. It doesn't have to be perfect form. You just want to be doing them as fast as you can within the 20 seconds. So most of the time I get 7 to 8 done.
Rest.
Now you're in the rest. So even after the first exercise, I'm starting to breathe heavy, and it's only going to be 10 seconds rest. We're going into squat jumps.
Exercise.
So it's incredibly hard. We're only one— not even a minute in. I'm breathing heavy. Mountain climbers next.
Exercise.
The idea, you bring your knees up towards your chin and squeeze your abdominals every time.
Rest.
Now this is a kick-throughs, I believe. We'll give them a go. Start off in a bear position. Exercise: right leg, left arm. Left leg, right arm. Right leg, left arm.
Halfway.
Back to burpees. So 4 exercises twice over.
Next exercise. Rest.
10 seconds rest again, then we're back into squat jumps.
Exercise. Rest.
See, 3 minutes in and I'm already starting to get gassed. All right, mountain climbers, second last exercise.
Exercise.
Just keep going, it's only 4 minutes. That's what I tell myself anyway. Last exercise, kick-throughs again. So, same position.
Exercise.
Right foot, left arm. Left foot, right arm. That's it. The beautiful thing about this app is the message it gives you at the end. I love it. Look at that, victory. So this is simple.
Done. Great workout. You spent 4 minutes 7 seconds exercising.
See, I lied. It's 4 minutes 7 seconds, but I think the app's wrong because only 4 minutes total with over that whole time, what is it, 8 sets and the 120 seconds rest. So you're really only going for 3 minutes if you count the rest time and active time. See, look, look how puffed I am right now. I can barely articulate thoughts, and that was only 4 minutes. So you get to really appreciate someone like a boxer who does 12 rounds of this— 12 rounds of 3 minutes. And I like to consider myself fairly fit, but when you're going like that It's incredibly difficult. And my favorite thing is you can do that anywhere. Like, this is just in my backyard with my body weight. So you got gravity, you got a patch of ground, you can work out. And in that 4 minutes, I bet it's something between 100 and 200 calories. Obviously I'm not measuring how much, but the follow-on effects from this sort of workout— my heart rate didn't drop at all in that 4-minute time. So give it a crack wherever you are. Use gravity, use your body. You don't necessarily need a gym. But, catch you next time.
