The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Learn the Amazing Benefits of the 4 Minute Tabata-style Workout | PPP #104

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

I am sharing the history, benefits, and some examples of the Tabata-style workout invented by Dr. Izumi Tabata in the 1990s that still provides times saving and health improvement benefits in 2022.

Hey everyone, welcome to People Process Progress episode 104, You Say Tomato, I Say Tabata. This, like the past couple episodes, was originally aired on the Up in the Morning podcast, now back over here on the main channel. And this has to do with the Tabata style workout, which I'll explain throughout this episode, which is a short, quick, high intensity hit. Great way to save time, but also get a great workout in. So I hope you enjoy this one. Do you want to save time but also get a great workout in. So I hope you enjoy this one. Do you want to save time? Do you want to get a great workout and get in better shape and build

your immunity naturally and improve your heart and your muscles and all that good stuff? Well, consider the Tabata workout. It is one of those metabolic conditioning workouts that I talked about in episode 103. Today I'm going to talk about the history of the Tabata, the benefits of it, how it came about, and give you some examples. But first, I'm glad you got up in the morning with me. It's time to lace up, chalk up, tie that belt, and get ready to roll with Kevin Pinnell. Hey everybody, welcome back. Episode 104 for You Say Tomato, I Say Tabata of the People Process Progress Podcast. Now's the time to get up, get after it, and of course wishing you all Godspeed. So let's get into this Tabata thing that I mentioned.

I'm using Merriam-Webster's definition. There's tons of resources and references about Tabata, but let's get into it. So the Tabata program came from a Japanese scientist named Dr. Izumi Tabata, and he's from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in, I'm going to probably screw this up, Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan in the 90s. So imagine that, think about that, the National Institute of Fitness and Sports, right? And we have institutes and things, but imagine nowadays in this pandemic, some people are locked down, some people are out doing their own thing, whatever. If health, there's a national institute, we're coming up, how can we be more efficient? How can we be more healthy?

There's no secret. People know, exercise, diet, wash your hands, just general tenets, pandemic or not, that's good stuff. anyway so Dr. Tabata and his team from the National Institutes of Fitness and Sports in Japan in the 90s came up with this study and we'll talk about it and what they did was have these two test groups and the first test group they did moderate intensity workouts and the second test group they did high intensity workouts they wanted to study how does this help humans get in better shape and healthier and all that good stuff. So the first group that did moderate stuff was an hour workout, five days a week for six weeks.

And the second group was four minute workouts, four days a week for six weeks. And these four minute workouts, and this is the formula for Tabata. So if you look up Tabata, this should be the formula as you do 20 seconds of real high intensity hard work, like running in place as fast as you can, simple example, and then 10 seconds rest. And then you do 20 seconds of 10.

You do that cycle eight times, right? And so it equals four minutes of workout. So lo and behold, the results, the moderate group, right? They increased their aerobic or cardiovascular exercise still, but didn't get a lot of anaerobic or muscular change right their endurance their strength didn't really help the folks that did high intensity and again high intensity interval training or HIIT Tabata is a form of that which are both forms of metabolic conditioning that I talked about in episode three but the folks that were doing the high intensity stuff they increased both their aerobic and

their anaerobic. So their cardiovascular system plus their muscles got in better shape, stronger, more endurance. And so they said, this is the thing. That's fantastic. The first test they did was pedaling a bike. So pedal a bike as fast as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, 20, 10, 20, 10.

I keep doing that, like I said. So fortunate for all of us that they have this discovery because it's a fantastic workout. I actually did this workout today in kind of the advanced mode, which I'll go into. And again, since the 90s, since the pedal bike experiment that made kind of the Tabata famous, it's advanced so much. You can mix so many different things in whether you have a garage gym, whether you go to the gym, whether you have nothing, just you and your body weight. Because remember, your body is your own gym. If you have a floor,

you have a gym. That's a key to remember. Don't get overwhelmed by thinking you have to load up your garage gym with a whole bunch of stuff or your home gym or things like that. Start with just yourself. So again, let's go over the benefits real quick. One, increased aerobic capacity, right? So your cardiovascular system is going to be legit. Increased anaerobic muscular endurance. So especially if you're doing things like wrestling or jujitsu or mixed martial arts or anything else, right, where you're mimicking kind of high intensity movements, or, you know, you need that for public safety, or military or whatever, just want to be able to spring into action, something like that, you're going to do that with these Tabata type workouts, it'll make

a big difference. And it mimics the intensity of like a jiu jitsu round or, you know, wrestling match or something like that. And to me, one of the most important things is the time saver, right? So when we're all busy, when we're either on virtual meetings, or we've got kids and spouses and sports and whatever else is going on in your world, knocking out a Tabata style workout. If you do one or two rounds, it's eight minutes, you know, four minutes or eight minutes or however many you do. It's just a huge, huge way to save time and get a great workout in. So what are some examples? Here's three examples from kind of what I call basic, meaning no equipment needed, to intermediate, where you have some equipment, and then advanced,

where you have kind of all the equipment. So this is actually the one that I did today. So the first one for Tabata, again, remember you pick either the same exercise and do it eight times for 20 seconds, and then 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest. You can do that, right, like they did on the bike. Or here's a way to mix it up a little bit. So here's a basic kind of beginner Tabata, all body weight. First round, first set, rather, do push-ups, then do air squats, then do supermans. That's when you lay on your belly and lift your arms up and your feet up at the same time.

Good back workout. Do jumping jacks. Do crunches. Do lunges. Do dips on your couch or your mantle, right, if you have a fireplace or just somewhere on a bench. And then do mountain climbers. That's where you're in the push-up position and you kind of act like you're running, right? Look up mountain climbers, something like that.

Act like you're running. You bring your feet up one foot up kind of toward toward your chest, the other one up and you're staying in the pushup position, those kind of things. Really good exercise. So that's all body weight. So imagine in 20 seconds, you're doing as many pushups as you can. And then you're resting 10 seconds. Then in 20 seconds, you're doing as many air squats as you can, et cetera. And then you do the other ones I talked about. Here's an intermediate one. Intermediate meaning that you can use a kettlebell with this one, right? So you've bought a piece of equipment. A kettlebell is a great

piece of equipment with so many different uses. We'll talk about that on future episodes. So this one, we're going to start with kettlebell swings, right? And you can choose your weight, a good weight to start with. I would say for women is between 12 and 20 pounds. For men is between 30 and 40 pounds or layer right because you want to get the movement good but you're going to do kettlebell swings for 20 seconds rest then you're going to do air squats supermans again you're going to do kettlebell swings again back to those jumping jacks back to those crunches back to those lunges like we did the all body weight and then we're going to finish with kettlebell swings so the kettlebell swings has a little bit

of weight momentum for the posterior chain all that good stuff that kettlebell swings do for us, but it adds a piece of equipment and weight more than just body weight. So this advanced one, advanced meaning some of the movements you may not be used to if you're new, but also because it requires a bunch of different equipment. And I'm fortunate. I've built up a garage gym a bit over the years, which I advise you all to do a little piece at a time. And so this one, this is the one I did.

So I started with kettlebell swings with my 61 pound kettlebell. Then I went on the assault bike, tried to do at least 65 RPMs, reps per minute, pedal speed essentially. Then I have these straps, they're W-O-O-S, they're not TRX or other bands, but basically if you have any kind of strap on a bar, right, so you need the anchor point and you need the straps for this where you're doing lat pulls. So you're doing kind of pulling yourself up to your chest. Then you're doing mountain climbers, right? All body weight there. Then you're doing hanging knee raises, knees to elbows. I have these straps where you put your arms in them and you put your feet down, bring your knees up to your elbows.

Then I did pushups. Then I use dumbbells. I just use 20 pound dumbbells where you curl them and then you press them and go back down both sides at the same time. And then I do what's called a sprawl, which in wrestling or jiu-jitsu, when someone tries to take you down by kind of grabbing your legs and tackling you, so to speak, you kick your legs out or to the side, and your chest comes down. So you do that on a yoga ball. So it's great practice. It's a good workout, and it's great for jiu-jitsu or wrestling. You could substitute it if you don't have a yoga ball, you're not into jiu-jitsu or wrestling or something, just do burpees. But that's something where I'm using a kettlebell, an assault bike,

a strap system, straps to hang on my elbows, dumbbells, and I have a yoga ball. So there I have, what, five or six pieces of equipment. So that's why I think it's kind of advanced because you need more equipment. But most gyms, regular gyms, have those kind of things, and you could just set yourself up. I also recommend for workout music and timing, you can time yourself and listen to your own music, which is kind of hard to keep track of. But they have these things on Apple Music called Tabata Songs. So look that up. And it's someone's voice, a coach, as it's called as the artist on there I'll

share that on the post for this but they count you down which is awesome it is in five four three two one and then you start going your 20 seconds and then when they get 10 seconds they give you a heads up so it's really helpful in keeping you on track and on time so short episode just like Tabata's or short workouts and the summary is a Tabata's or short workouts. And the summary is a Tabata is a high intensity interval training or HIIT style workout that takes four minutes per round, doing eight exercises, 20 seconds each, resting 10 seconds, and you do that, right. And then, you know, you're going to increase your cardiovascular system, your muscular fitness,

and overall health. And it's a great way to save time while you're doing that and learn about different exercises. And again, just like the examples, super basic, you can do it all body weight, you can throw a kettlebell in there, you can throw in a bunch of different exercises. Or you can do the same thing for all eight rounds, right? You could stay on the assault bike for all eight rounds, you can do jumping jacks for all eight rounds, dead matter. That's the cool thing about Tabatas. But as exercise from the 90s has evolved with kind of this functional fitness, CrossFit type stuff, it's given us so many different options. But again, the basics still work. A bodyweight Tabata is awesome. Thank you all so much for your time.

Please visit pupilprocessprogress.com for the write-up about this episode. Follow me at Hokiesquid, H-O-K-I-E-S-Q-I-D, on Instagram and the Twitter. And feel free to reach out on the website. So when you go to the website, feel free to share your story if you want to, if you're doing jiu-jitsu or working out, so we can share it with others. Please give us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. And thank you for your time. Remember, set that alarm, get up, get after it,

and I wish you Godspeed.