The $14,615 workout machine vs The 4 minute workout

I came across an advertisement in one of those airplane magazines a while back that caught my attention. What I found was the answer to becoming fit and losing weight. The only problem, it cost $14,615. It was a machine called the ROM. It actually looked very strange and I couldn’t even come close to comprehending spending $14, 615 for a machine but it did leave me wondering how they could make that claim. Could I actually exercise only 4 minutes per day and get the results I was looking for, improved fitness and fat loss?
Well, I'm going to save you a lot of money today because I'm going to explain to you how to achieve higher levels of fitness without an extremely overpriced machine. This "top secret" training method may do more for you than all your other exercises classes combined and leave you with 23 hours and 56 minutes to live the rest of your day.
But there's a small price to pay. Done correctly, you reach new levels of fatigue and exhaustion. I have gotten physically sick, from this training technique from pushing my body as hard as absolutely possible.
There’s that old saying that the Japanese can do it cheaper and faster when it comes to producing goods to sell to the masses. Well, this is a great example of how accurate that really is. This method of training was discovered by a Japanese researcher who was looking to find a way to increase both the anaerobic (doesn’t utilize oxygen for energy production) & aerobic utilizes oxygen for energy production) metabolic pathways in elite athletes.
This method was discovered by Izumi Tabata at the National institutes of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Tabata had two groups of elite athletes to use in this study. One group exercised on bikes for 5 days per week for 6 weeks with each session lasting 60 minutes. The other group exercised 5 days per week for 6 weeks with each session lasting 4 minutes. The results were amazing. The 4 minute Tabata workout produced a greater level of caloric burn, which leads to greater fat loss, over a 24 hour period. Also, another incredible finding was that the 4 minute workout resulted in improvements in both aerobic and anaerobic performance. The athletes improved their fitness by working out 56 minutes less each day. Wow!
This training method is so simple, yet so incredibly difficult, that athletes tend to try it once, acknowledge its greatness, and then rarely go back to do it again. What is it? It's simple: take one exercise and perform it in the following manner:
1) For twenty seconds, do as many repetitions as possible.
2) Rest for ten seconds
3) Repeat seven more times!
That's it! You're done in 240 seconds or four minutes! Oh, and that thing you're trying to brush off your face? That would be the floor.
Eight sets of "as many reps as you can get done," followed with a brief ten second rest— simple and effective. The best exercise for the beginner Tabata trainer is the body weight squat.
It helps to have someone record the reps of each set for you because, well, you won't remember as you get dizzy from exhaustion.
You should measure you lowest set of repetitions performed to compare workout to workout. You are starting with body weight squats to a close to parallel position if possible. For those of you that can, go slow and deep with your squats. If you have some challenges with your knees or are concerned about your form, squat down to a chair, like a dining room chair. The depth of your squat will directly relate to the level of muscular effort required to perform every rep in this brief 4 minute workout.
I have done this workout with three to four different exercises in a row. I have used the squat, pushup, crunch and pull-up. In this format I worked out for 16 minutes and was totally slammed! I would like to give you a few pointers to get started.
First, you need to be able to see a wall clock with a second hand during your four minutes of fun. Stop at twenty seconds, rest ten seconds and go again. Watching the clock seems to help with the focus.
And remember this: you really shouldn't consider doing much after the Tabata workout. Your lungs will be going like a locomotive engine. Go ahead and plan anything you like, but don't be surprised if it just doesn't happen. The hardest thing about this workout is staying focused for four minutes. But then again, you could have bought the $14, 615 ROM machine, which would look nice next to your Nordic track.