Once again I’ve neglected my blog for far too long, but in my defence I’ve been planning my new business (more to come on this soon) and creating a children’s picture book with my sister, which is very nearly finished. It’s all been very exciting!

With all this going on, I’m sure I’d be forgiven for taking a step back from my normal fitness routine but I just can’t go more than a few days without exercise, which is why I’m a big fan of Tabata training at the moment. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT). I’ve been incorporating high intensity intervals into my workouts for years – and have written about them on here before – but I’ve always felt that anything less than 40 seconds for a high intensity period was cheating.

I was wrong! Tabata intervals are only 20 seconds long with a 10 second rest. It doesn’t sound like much and I admit to being a little sceptical at first, but the idea is that you work those 20 seconds to complete exhaustion, then take 10 seconds rest and then go straight back into 20 seconds HIGH, HIGH, HIGH intensity. You repeat this 8 times. Believe me, if you’re working it like you should be, those last few sets are a killer!

Traditional Tabata training consists of just 4 minutes of work (8 rounds of 20 seconds work with 10 seconds rest) and according to research this is all you need to increase your aerobic and anaerobic fitness. This article explains it really well. Personally, I love the theory behind all of this but I’m not going to be satisfied by just 4 minutes of exercise no matter how hard-core it is. I might be pushed for time but I still enjoy my workouts and I want them to last a bit longer than 4 minutes, so guided by the fantastic KT Chaloner at GymCube.com, I’ve been doing Tabata classes in which you do 4 or 5 sets of the 4 minute workout with a short break in between each one. I have to say, I’m loving it and I feel fantastic!

So if you’re looking for something to spice up your workouts or you just want to see what all the hype is about, give Tabata a go. It’s not easy but it’s worth it.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

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