It’s humiliating and frustrating to find yourself pulling out your favorite pair of winter pants, only to find they are too tight. You knew that you’d gained weight, but had no idea that you’d gained that much, but a quick step on the scales reveal it is much worse than you thought. In order to get those numbers moving downward on the scales, it’s going to take a change in eating habits, plus the high intensity tabata training.

Tabata training has recently exploded onto the fitness scene with its variation of the popular interval-training program. The program works by introducing short bursts of intense exercise, which is followed by a shorter burst of rest. These workouts have been proven to build muscle mass, increase metabolism and burn calories.

Before you begin tabata training or any other type of exercise, you should first check with your doctor to get the go ahead. An example of interval training would be a warm up, followed by an intense 30 second sprint, and then a 20 second walk. The walk would follow the sprint until the amount of repetitions had been met for that particular session. The training is done three days a week, with one day of rest in between each session. Each week the number of repetitions are raised a little with the breaks in between lowered by a few seconds.

With tabata training, the work out lasts a quick 4 minutes, but some have reported that those four minutes seem like an eternity when you are struggling to get the most amount of repetitions in before starting your rest phase. The object of the training is to use weights, such as kettle bells and to work your muscles by doing as many repetitions in the time allowed. It sounds easy, but if you are working out at the highest intensity possible for those 20-30 second intervals, you should find yourself struggling those last few seconds before the pause. These short, intense work outs will build muscle mass and has been known to increase metabolism, burning calories far after the work out is complete.

Keep in mind that while tabata has been associated with burning more calories than traditional exercising, it is best combined with other forms of interval training to produce maximum results.

Because tabata training is a lot of work out in a few minutes, even the busiest of people can enjoy the benefits of them regardless of the time of day or night. It also means there is no room for excuses, and when combined with other interval training programs, and a diet rich in healthy foods, you’ll find the numbers on the scale moving downward in no time. Before you know it, you’ll be wearing your favorite pants again, and having more energy than you’ve had in ages.

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