Happy #WorkoutWednesday! Today, I am sharing with you one of my FAVORITE ways to get a quick cardio burn while leaning out your muscles: tabata training. In case you are not familiar with the term, tabata is a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout featuring exercises that typically last four minutes.
The way many people perform tabata is by choosing one exercise to complete eight rounds of in four minutes, rest for one minute, and then move onto the next exercise to complete eight rounds of in four minutes. I like to break it up into two different exercises that I can perform in 4 minutes, rest for one minute, and repeat the series once more. Either way you do it is fine- this is just my own personal preference because it helps break up the monotony.
I’m going to share one round of tabata with you that is sure to get your heart rate up quickly and keep it there: cherry pickers and speed squats. Cherry pickers are burpees without push-ups, and speed squats are exactly what they sound like (I’ve created a video demonstrating the form for each of these exercises that you can view at the bottom of this post).
You can do this as a stand-alone workout for when you are in a serious time crunch, or you can add it onto a longer workout routine. Typically, I like to either run for 15-20 minutes before performing this set for 10 minutes, or tack on a few more tabata variations. It really does depend on the amount of time you have- but remember to make every second count! Here is what your next ten minutes will look like:
- Cherry Pickers (20 seconds)
- Rest (10 Seconds)
- Speed Squats (20 seconds)
- Rest (10 seconds)
- Repeat series three more times
- Rest (1 minute)
- Cherry Pickers (20 seconds)
- Rest (10 Seconds)
- Speed Squats (20 seconds)
- Rest (10 seconds)
- Repeat series three more times
- Congratulations, you’re done!
*Try to beat your number of reps achieved each time for maximum results! The main goal is to keep your heart rate up and to get as many reps into those 20 second bursts as possible. *
Below is a video of the form for both exercises (cherry pickers first, speed squats second). I only demonstrate one set of each exercise because I don’t want to bore ya’ll with a 10 minute workout video of the same exercises over and over again! 😉 As this particular tabata set doesn’t require any equipment, you can do it anywhere (this video was obviously taken in my home!).
Have questions or want us to cover a specific fitness topic? Please feel free to comment below. I will be featuring other dancers’ tips over the duration of this series as well (both former and current).
Stay tuned for next week’s #WorkoutWednesday post!
