4 Minute Interval Training

Can this title really be true? Surely this is a mistake? You can lose fat or get fit with only four minutes of exercise?

Well the answer to all these questions is that it is true and it does work.

Now this isn't one of these programs that you see on an infomercial that promises to make losing weight or getting fit easier and quicker but never delievrs what it says. Instead this is a scientifically proven method that will burn calories for fun.

This type of training is called Tabata intervals, named after the Japenese exercise scientist who studied its effectivness as a mode of exercise.

In his study, published Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, he investigated the effect of interval training on endurance performance. What he found was that by only training for 4 mins using intervals, in a work to rest ratio of 2:1, well trained subjects improved their endurance capacity by 13%. Now for well trained athletes this increase in performance is very significant.

The second important issue with this type of training is that it also improved anaerobic performance (short term high intensity exercise). Anaerobic literally means without oxygen and relates to when the fuel used for exercise are produced without oxygen. The importance of this improvement is that anaerobic exercise is the type that improves body composition most effectively.

So what does this program look like. Well here is an outline of what you need to do.

This is an example of Tabat training on an indoor bike:

20 seconds hard as you can

10 seconds easy pace

Repeat 8 times. - Total 4 minutes.

Thats it. Look easy, I hear you say. Give it a go and then let me know what you think. This is one of the hardest workouts you could possibly do and hence one of the exercises you could get the most benefits from.

Before starting ensure you do a sufficient warm up. Remember this can be done using any piece of exercise equipment. My 2 personal favourites are either outdoor running (so I would sprint for 20 seconds and walk for 10 then repeat 8 times) or using a kettlebell and doing kettlebell swings for the desired period of time.