Spice up your Training Tabata Style!
Med Ball Slam
There may be some of you thinking, so what is this tabata thing all about? well I ain’t gonna bore you with the science behind it other than it’s named after someone and it is a great conditioning protocol. Thats all you need to know!
Tabata Style!
So how do you train tabata style? the answer is any which way as long as it involves 20 seconds of fast paced exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, with each exercise having 8 rounds. It can make for a tough 4 minutes if you are flat out. It can be bodyweight, with weight, a mixture, anything that you can go at a fast pace.
Short on Time?
These drills are perfect when you are short on time. They are anaerobic and crank your metabolism right up, with it sitting raised for up to 24 hours after the event. Thats right, higher metabolism = more calories burned even resting afterwards!
Of course that means exactly squat if you then go and eat crappy foods. It may sound boring but the nutrition part goes hand in hand if you want to shave some lard off!
Anyway, it just so happens that today I was short on time so after a warm up on my heavy bag, I tagged 4 exercises together to really crank up a tabata style workout!
doesn’t have to 4, hell it could be 3 or 5, point is though is that you have to be able to maintain this fast pace to its end
Example Workout
I cranked out this workout earlier, using a combination of bodyweight exercises and a medicine ball for good measure!
Here goes:
- Flex strap rows – inverted bodyweight rowing with straps.
- Med ball Slams.
- squats and alternating with lunges with the med ball.
- Pushups (variations).
I added a core finisher at the end of ab wheel rollout’s and hanging leg raises, it is up to you whether you want to tag anything on the end!
it may sound easy, but keeping a fast pace and doing these exercises for 8 rounds each can result in 16 minutes of hell. If it is easy, make it harder, the challenge it to yourself, not to me.
What are your favourite exercises you could plug into tabata training?, fire the comments in and lets find out!
stay fit and train hard
Dean Coulson
Circuit Training Variations
I have been playing around with different circuits to keep things interesting and thought I’d share this cool conditioning circuit.
Using the “integrated circuit training” principle, I created a 10 station circuit using a combination of body weight and weighted exercises. The premise is simple, each station lasts 30 seconds before immediately going onto the next exercise, this continues until the 10 stations are complete.
Make no mistake this is tough, it is meant to be, pushing your body through fatigue increases your general physical preparedness (GPP) and allows your body to adapt to train further during fatigue as well as decreasing your recovery time.
I aim to to 5 circuits with 1 minute rest in between each one. However if you feel you need more rest then take it, however I’d advise to keep it as minimal as possible.
Here’s the circuit:
- Body weight squats (with or without 5kg dumbbells)
- Body weight Lunges (with or without 5kg dumbbells).
- Heavy Bag Punching.
- Elevated Push ups.
- Burpees.
- Squat Jumps.
- Dumbbell Alternating shoulder press (high tempo).
- Bench Dips.
- Skipping.
- Heavy Bag punching.
In this circuit I emphasise “doubling up” on upper and lower body exercises until station 9 and 10. I wanted to create more fatigue on the same muscle groups with a combination of exercises. You can just as easily make it upper/lower. The exercises are not set in stone either, there are plenty substitutes if you don’t have a heavy bag, Shadow boxing with a pair of light dumbbells would suffice.
The key here is that the circuit is continuous. It is possible to play around with the amount of stations, the time at each station and of course the exercises.
Don’t forget an interval timer such as a gym boss is an excellent training tool here, it takes care of the time so you can concentrate on the training.
Stay sharp and train Hard!
- Dean Coulson
Out of the Weight Room
There s nothing like hard labour to mix up your training and give a completely different slant on things.
Last weekend I helped my father in law at his new house. When I say new, I mean it is a newish purchase but is in need of some work. Built in the 1800′s it is in need of some serious renovation, to the point that he not only removed the stone floors but kept digging until there were 5 foot deep holes in each room! God knows why, I am sure there was absolutely no need to create so much work, but he did and is now filling them back in with hardcore aggregate.
I would say around at least 80 tonnes of it to be exact! he had another 21 tonne drop last weekend and I went to help him out, bearing in mind we were using 2 shovels and 2 wheel barrows between us to cart this stuff into the house and dumping it inside.
Here’s when the training comes in, good old fashioned manual labour, it ticks so many boxes, strength, stamina, endurance etc it really is a great all round strength and conditioning exercise.
Breaking it down you have so many similar movements in the gym that are simulated in doing this.
Shovelling, hits all the upper body and incorporates rotational strength for your core. I kept swapping hands so that I could hit each side.
Lifting barrow is like a rack pull. More than enough to hit the quads, back, traps and arms.
wheeling it for distance is like a farmers walk. I know the barrow has wheels but it is still weight over distance and awkward terrain repetitively and seriously eats into your grip strength.
Dumping the load in the barrow goes in as an all over body explosive lift to tip the barrow up, well in my case to flip it, just to add to the fun!
Put all that together at a good pace over the course of the day makes for a damn hard but rewarding session!
It is definitely a man thing, just good old hard honest graft. Even my son was there getting into the thick of it and he is only 5!
Next time someone needs you to pick up a shovel, I would recommend it, beats a gym any day of the week!
- Dean Coulson
Heavy Bag Conditioning
Ever used a heavy bag or punch bag for conditioning? Unless you have a martial arts or boxing background I doubt many people would have. However you don’t need to be a fighter to use one, they are an excellent conditioning tool and a great alternative should you wish to add another dimension to your conditioning arsenal.
For Everyone
As long as you have access to a heavy bag, then this tool really is for anyone. I get people saying to me that they cannot punch. How else to learn but to do it? you are not trying to be a boxer here and for a lot of conditioning drills, two straight punches are my favoured techniques for simplicity. don’t forget you bag gloves!
Keep it interesting
I never get bored using a heavy bag, I can play around with one for ages. There are endless ways to keep this activity interesting. You can keep the training session light and fluid or you can dig in and go for big power shots. You can mix it up, drill for speed or power. You can even add other exercises into the mix such as skipping or burpees or squats in between rounds. One thing is for sure, if it is used right this training tool will wipe you out.
Plan your session
If you are going to do a conditioning session on a heavy bag then decide before you start what your goal is. Is it muscle endurance? speed? power?
Work it in rounds and decide how many you are going to do, how long each round is going to be and what you are going to do in each round. A perfect tool for timing your session is a gymboss interval timer. I recommend you get one for all your conditioning work so you don’t have to worry about watching a clock or counting rounds.
Many people think of Three minute rounds when you think of boxing, but it doesn’t have to be on a heavy bag. It would be practically impossible to go all out for 3 minutes, even 2 minutes. If you ever watch boxers in a ring, there is a lot of inactivity interspersed with short periods of activity, even elite boxers cannot sustain long bursts of exertion, your body cannot sustain energy release that quickly for long periods.
Push through Fatigue
This type of exercise is anaerobic, the body relies on energy stored in your muscles (ATP) as this can be broken down the fastest. This however is short lived as there is only a finite amount stored there. This type of energy is designed for short bursts, Ideal for this type of exercise. Training in this way can teach you how to push through fatigue, get your body used to the discomfort so that over time you will be able to go for longer periods and reap the rewards.
I always recommend a thorough warm up of the muscles and joints before commencing this as they will take a lot of stick. As I said before, this doesn’t have to be fancy if you are new to it, stick to straight punching, always keep your hands up (which places extra stress on the shoulders) and elbows down before and after executing a punch.
Here are some examples for you:
Example 1
Round 1 – nice and easy warm up round.
Round 2 – Hands at a faster pace
Round 3 – heavy power shots
Round 4 – Hands at a faster pace
Round 5 – Heavy power shots
Round 6 – all out, mix it up fast and powerful shots.
Each round lasts 1 minute with 30 seconds of rest in between. Don’t pace the round, give it everything!
Example 2
- light fast
- power shots
- speed drill
Use the above as a template. Pick a number of rounds, for example 12 and do the exercise in rounds of three
Example 3
One Minute on the bag, followed by one minute skipping rope. Go straight from one exercise to the other without stopping. This really hits the shoulders, upper back and arms and builds good muscle stamina. This doesn’t have to be skipping rope, it could be squats, push ups, pull ups, burpees etc, use your imagination!
Example 4
For those of you that understand the different punching techniques, you can use the following on a bag to keep it interesting. Aim for 12 rounds of 1 minute, each round with a different combo.
NOTE: Because this is only for one minute, it should be all out, no slacking or resting in the minute, keep your work rate up. Give yourself no more than 30 seconds between rounds, challenge yourself to have minimal rest!
- jab/Cross
- hooks, 2 body, 2 head
- jab, cross, hook, cross
- hook, hook (same hand), cross
- jab/cross, jab/Cross
- rapid 16 straight punches is fours
- Double Jab/Cross
- 2 hooks body, 2 straight to the head
- Jab/Cross/Hook
- 2 hooks to the body
- Jab/cross. Jab/Hook
- All out, anything goes!
Please feel free to add to this post with your comments and ideas. I want this to be a good flow of information for everyone to voice opinion or follow.
Thanks
Hill Sprints are where it’s at!
Hill Sprinting
I find hill sprints an awesome conditioning drill, a great way to increase explosive power, endurance and leg strength, especially the hamstrings and groin muscles.
I remember when I was at school I used to see people my age and younger running a local hill, a decent incline up to the top, round the tree and down over and over. I used to think they were mad!
Fast forward a number of years and that is no longer the case. I got into it by chance, a local running route some time ago had some pretty sharp inclines and I used to challenge myself every time to get up them as quick as possible. Just got me thinking that I could do the same thing over and over as a different way of conditioning without a 5 mile run attached.
The Same Hill
I ended up using the same hill that those runners did years before; it is under a mile away from where I live, which serves as a decent warm up by way of a jog.
This is a great way to develop…..
Mark out about 100 yards on the hill (I used that tree as a marker) and aim for around 10 sprints. The first sprint is always at a moderate pace, really to acquaint the tendons muscles and ligaments to the hill, get the arms pumping in a rhythm and to get me breathing right. Walk down the hill for a recovery period. This way you get the most out of every sprint.
Long stride
The next sprint, I work on a long stride pattern mostly for power building as this technique retards forward momentum somewhat. It also restricts all out sprinting and serves as a further warm up.
All out fastest sprints
After that you should be sufficiently warm to go all out, this involves a short stride and a high knee motion going for as fast a leg frequency as possible, don’t forget to pump your arms and keep the sprint going to the end, in fact imagine the end is 5 metres past actual end point so you don’t allow yourself to fade.
Ramp the intensity!
Just doing the sprints is fine but what about ramping up the intensity?
At the bottom of the hill I perform a body weight exercise, I usually perform 1 upper body then a lower body the next time. This could be push ups (different variations), squats, lunges, even burpees.
Sample Workouts
Sprint up a hill 10 times and walk back down.
Intensify it with bodyweight…
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 pushups
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Bodyweight Squats
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Close grip Pushups
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Lunges
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Divebombers
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Squat Jumps
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 pushups
- Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Bodyweight Squats
Make it competitive…..
If there is a bunch of you introduce partner drills……
Race each other up hill, then walk down to recover at the bottom. When the last man reaches the bottom go again. It pays to be fastest uphill to get more rest down. Remember though, walk back down the hill for recovery.
Not tough enough? Try hill carrys….
Carry your partner up the hill as fast as possible, then both walk back down and repeat with roles reversed. If you don’t have a partner for hill carry’s, introduce objects such as sandbags, tyres, sleds. Anything to add resistance.
Enjoy!
