240 Seconds of Pain – Rich Sennewald

“I can tear the fat from your body”

It’s now February; I look around the commercial gym I frequent and I see people rammed like cattle into the cardio area, plod plod plod, sweat, sweat, sweat…

I do my squats, glute-ham work, some mobility exercises and finish up with some self-torture (foam rolling).

Plod, Plod, Plod – They’re still there; it’s the same people, always there.

Why do they all look the same?

If you are training for fat loss or perfect body composition or just want kick-ass conditioning, you’ve got to challenge yourself, you’ve got to get down and dirty, get some chalk under your fingernails and some sweat on your brow.
You want to be sucking in air and hanging onto the floor at the end of it all.

If you are guilty of joining the gym just to go steady, listen up:

“I can have you down on your hands and knees in four minutes”

Today, my friends I introduce you to the Tabata method of training. It takes just four 240 seconds from start to finish and promises results.

The Tabata method was popularised by Professor Izumi Tabata, who came across this method of training during his time working with the Japanese National Speed Skating team.


Some of you might see this and think… “Interval Training”, well, actually it is a form of high intensity interval training. Tabata is Interval Trainings dirtier younger sister, you might think you can handle her but she will kick your ass and leave you breathless, wanting more.

It’s so fiendishly simple, it makes you feel dirty.

So, how does it work?


 
Step one: We chose eight exercises that recruit a large amount of muscle, for example Front-Squats , Kettle bell Swings, Chin-ups, the Farmers Walk.

Step Two: Perform exercise number one, for twenty seconds.

Step Three: Rest for Ten Seconds

Step Four: Repeat for the Next Seven Exercises.

That's it. You can repeat this up to 8 times, but most will settle for 5-6, if you are recording progress, then note down the number of reps performed in your final run-through, for each exercise.

Now, I’d like to set you all a little challenge, but first, let’s get some ground rules down:

1. If you let-go of the bar, between exercises, it doesn’t count - you may only ditch the bar, when it is no-longer needed or you cannot continue.

2. About 7 seconds into your 10 second rest, you should be getting ready to go again.

3. If you can do more than 8 rounds of this, your weights or exercises are not challenging you enough.

4. If you can do this more often than every 3 days, then … see above.

Remember, these are maximal effort, but you should be using a weight that is comfortable to handle back-to-back for exercises.
For example – most will fall foul to a 40 kilo barbell and only the strongest of athletes will want to use 60 kilos – a single weights plate grasped or 5kg technique plates will be enough to humble most.

Below are two sample complexes’ that can be done with, A) Minimal room and B) A small walking space.

A) The Barbell / Plate Complex:

I have found, for an even harder complex, grasp a 20kilogram barbell disc in your hands, firmly at chest height and perform the exercises instead of a barbell, remember, no letting go!

1. Reverse Lunges
2. Stiff Legged Deadlift
3. Hang-Clean
4. Push Press
5. Front-Squat
6. Bent over row
7. Barbell Rollout
8. Drop the barbell – Towel Chins/pullups



B) The Strongman Conditioning Tabata

Set yourself up 20-30 meters away from the barbell you will be using for cleans (station 1).
Set a Kettle bell at the first 20-30 meter mark (Station 2). The distance between the two stations, will be your farmers walk distance.
You can use dumbbells, sandbags, real farmers handles, beef cattle, anything you like!

1. Farmers walk
2. Power-clean (1)
3. Farmers walk
4. 2 handed Kettlebell Swing (2)
5. Farmers walk
6. Front Squat (1)
7. Farmers walk
8. 2 Handed Kettlebell Swing (2)



Give these workouts a try and drop your feedback in below.
Shake up your usual cardio session with a bit of Japanese flavour.

For further reading, Professor Tabata’s most cited paper.
http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Ab...ittent.15.aspx


Discuss on the MP Forum.