Tabata Time!
Hi friends!
Happy Tuesday…! I hope your week is getting off to a lovely start.
In case you didn’t see it, there was a comment made to yesterday’s post by reader Tray about a FLEX IT FRIDAY this week – saying that if I post a flex shot (biceps) she’ll post one to her blog too. This totally put a smile on my face (mostly because I have pretty tiny ‘guns’) and I thought it might be a fun way for you all to join in too! Send me an email with your best BICEP flex shot shari@fitfeat.com by midnight Thursday and I’ll add it to Friday’s post with mine. Don’t leave me hanging, now!
Monday was a great day for feeling on track again. After the morning joe, it started with some Tabata-style weight training, which really becomes more a game of muscular endurance than strength. Originally designed for sprint intervals to increase VO2 max, you see it used for many other types of training now. You alternate 20 seconds of high intensity with 10 seconds of low intensity and repeat for 4 minutes. When you do this for sprints, the goal is that your high intensity segments are so tough that truly by the end of the 4 minutes you are wiped. Full-body exercises are a great use of this training style as well.
Well you know I love any exercise that alternates intensity with rest so when I first read about Tabata last year I was excited to try it out. I later downloaded a Tabata timer on my iPhone and use it to turn pretty much any exercise into an interval session. And of course, I like to make up my own rules, so instead of things like pushups and pullups, I like to do a full Tabata round for each muscle group. Here’s how Monday’s workout went down.
Tabata Full Body
- TM Warmup 5 minutes
- Chest: DB Bench Press 4 minutes
- Back: Seated Rows 4 minutes
- Shoulders: Side Lateral Raises 4 minutes
- Biceps: Seated DB Curls 4 minutes (2 min palms up, 2 min palms in)
- Triceps: Tricep Pushdowns 4 minutes
- Core: Planks 4 minutes
- Legs: Static Ball Squats 4 minutes
- Legs: VS Rear Lunges 4 min (alt legs every interval)
This is a quick and efficient training method, less than 40 minutes. My bis, tris, and shoulders are definitely ‘vocal’ today!
By then, my bod was ready for a post-workout shake: chocolate Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer with 1/2 banana.
Then a mid-morning Lemon Larabar while working at the computer:
At lunchtime I wanted to use up a couple of veggies that were looking a little wilty, so I cut up an orange pepper, roma tomato, baby bellas, and zucchini, tossed them with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt and roasted them in my toaster oven for about 25 minutes.
During the last few minutes I sprinkled nutritional yeast on them to give them a ‘cheesy’ feel and made an avocado/sprout sandwich for the side:
Veggie-licious!
Midafternoon called for another Larabar, this time Cashew Cookie flavor. And a cup of herbal tea. Mmmm, tea and “cookies”. I feel so PROPER! 
Dinner was a special treat because MSP’s brother happened to be passing through town and we hadn’t seen him since June. So we went to one of our local favorites, Via Baci, where I would normally order a pizza (oh do they ever have great pizza!!) but since I have been making so many pita pizzas at home, I opted for the seared tuna salad with lemon vinaigrette on the side. It was SCRUMPTIOUS and I even have a little leftover for today. (Caution: fuzzy iPhone pic ahead, view at your own risk!) 
A few pieces of candy corn for dessert at home while chatting with family – it was a great end to a fabulous day.
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Today’s questions: Do you prefer intervals or steady-state exercise? Have you tried Tabata for your cardio or weights? How did you like it? Drop a comment to let me know your thoughts.
And then drop me an email with your BICEP FLEX!!! We’ll all have a reason to pump up our biceps with some exercise beforehand and I know some of you are jokesters so it could be comical!
Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!
– Shari B. =)