Monday 11/10/08

For Today:

The Evil Dr. Tabata

I wasn't interested in today's WOD, so I decided to try something that I've used to some degree with training clients, but never actually messed up on myself with. It's called the Tabata Protocol and was invented by some Japanese minister of pain. The theory is that exercising in intense intervals of 20 seconds on/10 off will give you a good mixture of both strength and cardio benefits, and burn some mad fat. Here's the recipe:

Warm up:
-Light jog
- 4 sets x 8 reps sumo high-deadlift

Tabata:
-8 20/10 intervals of 135# deadlift (Total body movement)
1 minute rest
-8 20/10 intervals of shoulder presses (Upper body movement) - started at 25#, quickly decreased, ended up at 7# db's by the last two rounds. Ideally you use the same weight throughout; I was a bit overconfident on these - and it was a brutal minute with the 7# db's.
1 minute rest
-8 20/10 intervals of 24" box jumps (Legs) - I uses the tallest flat bench we have, not sure on actual height.
1 minute rest
-8 20/10 intervals of situps (Core).

Thrown in a lot of sweat and you're there. You can also score this by tracking the lowest # of reps in a given interval for each exercise, but it's hard enough to track the time and interval # as it is. A partner would be nice for this one.