How to burn scads of fat in four minutes.

December 19, 2015 Ashley 0 Comments

Hey there.

Yes. You. Did you work out today? How about yesterday?

At all this week?

Wait – what’s that? You can’t fit it into your schedule?

Okay. Granted. Me and sardonic Gosling get it.

That said, I come bearing the good news bomb that’ll blow your excuses up in a mushroom cloud of time-to-grind-ness. Indeed, as an early holiday gift (yes; since it’s not PC to say “Christmas” or wise to alienate any part of my audience, we’ll go with “holiday gift” for now), have I got a great update for you. And that’s this: you don’t need much time for a worthy workout. All you need is somewhere between four to ten minutes. (Well, that, some diesel grade strength intrinsic fortitude, and a rag to mop up the blood, sweat, and tears once you’re done.)

And how?

With Tabata (AKA High Intensity Interval Training).

What Tabata is, is this routine conjured up by an exercise/science profesh when he was coaching a Japanese speed skating team. (His full name’s Dr. Izumi Tabata – hence the exercise’s title sounding kinda like a yoga pose). Essentially, it’s a regimen interspersing intervals of intense (we’re talking HAM level) exercise with brief breath-catching moments. You do this off and on for three to four minutes (sometimes longer, if you like.) And any array of different styles and moves can be executed during the drill. Resistance? Yep. Weight lifting? Sure. Aerobics? Absolutely. We don’t discriminate here.

An example:

But what exactly does it do, you might wonder? In the long term?

Well, for one, lemme ask you something. If I told you could burn more fat while just sitting on your azz, would you want that in your life? Is that something you’d invest five to ten minutes a few times a week for? Yes? Oh, good. Because, with Tabata, you can raise this thing called your basal metabolic rate. Now, before your eyes glaze over and you suffer from jargon induced narcolepsy, allow me to wrap that up in layman’s terms and tie it with a bow of bottom linery: a high metabolic rate means you burn even more fat. Intense exercise like you get with Tabata does exactly that – raising your metabolic rate to fifteen times your usual BMR. And the fun part? It helps you burn that much more… even later on, when you’re sitting on the couch at dusk on a Sunday, realizing you’re still in yesterday’s pajamas. Yes. Whilste you craft a backside shaped canyon into your couch, you’re still burning more than the average bear. Because yesterday morning, you did this training for all of five to ten minutes.

And, if that’s not enough for you, maybe muscle tissue retention is. The problem with relying on diets alone is that the weight loss achieved can induce muscle tissue loss as well. With Tabata, your body beef gets stressed til reinforcements get sent it. All that exertion on the muscle sends out the signal that more of it’s required. And what’s that mean? Your lean body mass to fat ratio rises.

Then, finally, let’s talk about improved stamina. Because there’s also the whole “aerobic/anaerobic capacity” augmentation that Tabata imparts. At first, I didn’t get this concept. (Because: blonde.) So, let me see if I can elucidate it for you now that I do. Your aerobic capacity (and mine, too, presumably) just refers to the max amount of oxygen our bods gobble up during heavy sweating. Anerobic capacity, on the other hand, is the max amount of energy your body can make when that oxygen’s not around. Where’s that energy come from? Why, by burning up carbs when the O2’s outta stock. And (as you may’ve guessed where I’m going with this) Tabata accomplishes an accentuation of both’a those things. In fact, Dr. T tested this himself via a five days a week, six week long experiment, having subjects do the HITT regimen. The results? Aerobic capacity went up roughly 14 percent, while anaerobic capacity went up 28 percent. Ya know, in a way, these results mean Tabata’s kinda like the gift that keeps on giving to itself. Because when aerobic and anaerobic capacity both go up, you get an increase in stamina, as the doc’s the test subjects noted. Which means your subsequent Tabata seshes’ll be less dreadful. Which means you’ll be more willing to do them.

More fat burn? A leaner me? Supercharged stamina?

I get all’a that in a seventh of the time I spend jogging? A fifteenth of the time I spend kickboxing?

(If you were too lazy to watch the video, then here’s a Cliffs Notes version of someth. similar)

I suppose it’s time to ask ourselves about time itself. So: is it genuinely a matter of minutes we’re lacking?

Or merely motivation?

Hopefully this lil info-sesh will’ve been enough to help you find both.