Body & beauty

Fitness: Reshape your body with Tabata

By Anthony Mayatt

Our fitness expert Anthony Mayatt explains high intensity interval training

With the cold weather around for a little longer, people get put off exercising and do not realise that they can perform a great workout in a small area in their own home. There is a style of training called tabata, which is about doing 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest and this is done continuously for four minutes. This is a form of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) exercise and can be done using either just one exercise or multiple exercises. I tend to choose two exercises one for upper and the other lower body. This will get the blood rushing across the whole body helping with fat burn and build all round strength.

The most common tabata is to perform jumping lunges and press ups but feel free to mix and match to possibly do a core tabata or focus purely on a particular group of muscles. If you can set aside just 15 minutes you can perform three separate workouts and until you have tried it you have no idea how hard it can be. Try performing this set of tabata routines for a superb workout.

Jumping Lunges/Press ups

Star Jumps/Mountain Climbers

Plank/Russian Twist

These three routines focus on upper/lower body, cardio and core so doing this in just 15 minutes anywhere is the perfect way to work out even if you only have a small amount of space in your home. Give it a try and let us know how you get on!

Article by

Anthony Mayatt

Personal Trainer

Anthony has been a personal trainer for nearly 10 years, during which he has worked with a varied clientele from students to celebrities! He is based in London travelling around the capital training clients in private gyms, their homes, local parks and work locations. Anthony founded Breathe Fitness in 2006 and is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers.

Article by

Anthony Mayatt

Personal Trainer