Getting in Shape

In an earlier post I mentioned wanting to try out Tabata intervals for a short workout on regular days of the week. I successfully completed my first full week. I worked out every morning Monday through Friday doing the 15 minute Tabata workout I outlined before. The first couple of days were rough, but I was already noticing an improvement by day 3. This week I'm starting to intersperse different workouts (concentrating on arms, shoulders, abs, or whatever I feel needs work) on Tues and Thurs, while keeping the full body workout on the Mon, Wed, and Fri.

Ironically, I missed both of my usual judo workouts last week (sick wife on one day, a sick washing machine on the other). So last night was my first night back after a week off, which usually means I'm going to feel very crappy the next day. However, I felt great for almost the whole class (I got a little tired after the 3rd or 4th randori session at the end) and I still got up early this morning and did my workout. I also feel like I'm less tired at work and a little more alert. I'm not contributing all of this to my specific workout so much as the fact that I'm getting up and doing something to get my blood pumping each morning.

Hopefully I can keep this new trend going and not let it peter out like some of my past attempts. It's certainly manageable and even enjoyable. Who knows, I may even be in great shape for tournament season (for once). Maybe I'll even attack my diet next, eliminating fried foods, sugars, and starchy foods............Nah. I'm a southern boy and I need my fried foods ;-)

Judo, Burpees, and Tabata Intervals

I've been looking for something simple that I can do at home to improve my aerobic/anaerobic fitness. Generally I do pretty good in class randori, but after my first match in a tournament setting I'm usually sucking wind. While looking around for ideas on the judo forum and fitness sites, I repeatedly came across the term Tabata intervals (or sometimes drills or protocol).

Tabata intervals are named for a Japanese researcher, Izumi Tabata, who during a study in the late 90s determined that doing high intensity interval training for a relatively short amount of time was more effective than performing a lower intensity endurance workout over a long period of time. If you Google Tabata intervals, or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) you'll find plenty of information about all the science behind it.

Here's how a basic Tabata workout is done:
- 5 minutes of warmup
- 20 seconds of high intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest.
- Repeat the prior step 7 more times (for a total of 4 minutes of high intensity intervals)
- 5 minutes of cooldown.

That's it! Only 14 minutes. The high intensity workout can be anything. It can be free weights, weight machines, pushups, situps, sprints, punching bag, or you can alternate over several different exercises. The key is whichever exercise you choose, perform the exercise with a lot of intensity for the full 20 seconds of each interval. I've decided to use burpees. Burpees are a type of drill involving push ups, squats, and jumping. We do them our judo class and they are a great workout than incorporate most of the muscles of the body. If you don't know what a burpee is, a quick search on YouTube will clue you in.

After putting Lena to bed last night, I tried out the intervals using burpees. I made it through 3 intervals before I just collapsed in a gasping pile. Man, my anaerobic fitness is in worse shape than I thought. However, once I cooled down, my legs stopped shaking, and my breathing returned to normal, I felt great the rest of the evening! I even felt pretty energetic this morning. Tonight I intend to break my previous record ;-) Once I'm up to doing the full 8 intervals comfortably, I think I will look into also practicing uchi komis with the exercise tubing and Tabata intervals. If that goes well, I'll let you know.