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Japan Football Resistance Training Equipment

1. Tabatas are four-minute intervals of brutal metabolic conditioning.
2. They sound simple, but if you're doing them correctly, you will finish in a state of breathlessness and your lungs will feel like they're on fire.
3. Traditional Tabatas consist of one exercise. Better Tabata options allow you to rotate between multiple exercises.
4. Pick the Tabata option that's right for you, and destroy fat in just four minutes.

Effective Burn. Endless Options.

It's the most effective way to incinerate body fat and raise your work capacity.

It doesn't matter what space or equipment limitations you're facing, the following Tabata options include barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or your own bodyweight. Choose your weapon.

But First, a Review: What's a Tabata?

If you don't already know what a Tabata interval is, it's a high intensity interval training protocol originally created by Japanese researcher Dr. Izumi Tabata.

Each Tabata interval consists of 20 seconds of high intensity (as hard as you can go) exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. This is repeated for eight rounds, totaling four minutes time.

Four Minutes to Freedom

The Tabata method is easy to understand, but it's not easy to do. Many folks don't make it through the full four minutes, and others who do often end up puking following the first few workouts.

This is why it's necessary to gradually progress (periodize) your Tabata training. Below I'll provide you with both an 8-week and 12-week progression model designed to help you maximize your Tabata training efforts while avoiding excessive fatigue and overtraining.

That being said, progression or no progression, in order to use the Tabata method successfully, you must be willing to work hard!

Fat Loss vs. Conditioning

There's almost no difference between fat loss exercises and metabolic conditioning exercises, both should be very intense in nature and demand a total body effort.

The only thing that separates a conditioning program from a fat loss program is the diet. You can improve your endurance and conditioning without going on any special diet. For fat loss, do the same workouts but fix your diet.

Untraditional Tabata Training

Traditional Tabata protocols contain only one exercise, such as squats, and repeating that same exercise throughout the entire Tabata interval. But there are other options:

1. Use two different exercises performed four times each.
2. Use four different exercises performed two times each.
3. Use eight different exercises each performed once within a Tabata workout.

Here's why the three options beat traditional Tabatas:

• When you only use one exercise such as squats for the entire Tabata, the legs gradually fatigue with each working set. This centralized leg fatigue reduces the overall intensity of the Tabata and its intensity.
• Using more than one exercise prevents centralized muscle fatigue and helps you maintain the same high level of intensity in each round.
• Mixing in more than one exercise boosts the overall metabolic demand because it involves more muscles. Put simply, more muscles worked means greater energy demand, which in turn means faster fat loss.
• Doing the same exercise eight times for four minutes straight is just plain boring. The workout is already brutal, why make it monotonous too?