On most days you head to the gym and ‘do the right thing’. You take out your training log, follow the reps and sets, add a little more weight than last week and walk out the door feeling pretty darn good about yourself. Other days, you’re not quite ‘feeling it’ and you spend less time squatting and more time chatting up the hot girl in the squat rack.
Then there are some days you just walk into the gym feeling extra pumped and super focused. Sure you could bang out your regularly scheduled training program. Hell, the way you’re feeling you could probably hit a couple of PR’s. But, today, you’re same-old training program just won’t do. You want to tackle something tough. You want a challenge. You want to train so hard that you crawl out of the gym.
Get Crushed
Lucky for you, we’re here to help. Each week we’ll give you a tough, one-off workout that you can try when you are looking for the ultimate training challenge of just feel like you need a break from your regular routine. But be warned, this training program will leave you totally CRUSHED.
These days there may be no concept in training that is more misunderstood than Tabata Training. Tabata is a specific protocol which requires performing an activity for 20 seconds of all-out work followed by 10 seconds of complete rest for 4 minutes total (8 rounds). And while Tabata can be considered High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), not all HIIT is Tabata. If it doesn’t follow the 4 minutes of 20 seconds on/10 seconds off protocol, it simply isn’t Tabata.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, this workout has you completing 3 separate Tabatas – one with barbell thrusters, one push-ups and one with burpees – with 5 minutes rest between each one. You should be shooting for a minimum of 8 reps for each 20 second work period. If that doesn’t seem too tough you are either delusional or you just aren’t going all out.
If you want to keep score for future comparison, simply total up the number of reps performed. The more, the better.
The Workout
Barbell Thrusters
8 rounds of 20 seconds x as many reps as possible followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Rest 5 minutes
Push-Ups
8 rounds of 20 seconds x as many reps as possible followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Rest 5 minutes
Burpees
8 rounds of 20 seconds x as many reps as possible followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Dan Trink is a personal trainer, strength coach and nutritional consultant based in New York City. To find out more about Dan visit www.trinkfitness.com
