Why You Should Do Tabata Training

Developed by Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Tabata is based on timed interval method.

Tabata is a type of HIIT workout that aims to yield the most benefits in a short amount of time. For each exercise, you do eight rounds of 20 seconds of maximal strenuous exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest x 8 cycles through.

This equates to a 4-minute workout. This can be done with just one exercise i.e., burpees OR combined with a few different exercises to make a ‘Tabata Circuit’.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • Improves fitness
  • Maximum results in minimal timeframe
  • EPOC effect – ‘afterburn’ so the body continues to burn calories after the session
  • Good fat burner
  • Convenient and flexible sessions – you can perform a Tabata workout anywhere doing any exercise
  • Increased anaerobic and aerobic fitness

Upper Back

The muscles in the group are:

TRAPEZIUS

This is broad, flat and triangular in shape. It is responsible for elevating and retracting the scapula (shoulder blade) and when the arm abducts (moves away from the body’s centre line), it rotates the scapula.

LATISSIMUS DORSI

The latissimus dorsi muscles, known as the lats, are the large V-shaped muscles that connect your arms to your vertebral column. They help protect and stabilize your spine while providing shoulder and back strength. Your lats also help with shoulder and arm movement and support good posture.

LEVATOR SCAPULAE

This is a smaller muscle attached between the neck and scapula. Its main function is to elevate the scapula.

RHOMBOIDS

As shown in the diagram, there are two muscles, major and minor. Both muscles are responsible for the retraction and rotation of the scapula.

Why You Should Do Giant Sets Training

Giant sets are doing 4 or more exercises back-to-back with no break. During these sets you can either pair exercises that are non-competing, in other words opposing muscle groups, or you can target the same muscle.

For example, you might do an overhead press, a lateral raise, a rear-delt raise and an upright row for shoulders — then rest a few minutes to catch your breath and repeat.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • Improve muscular endurance and cardiovascular performance
  • Increase athletic performance
  • Can be time efficient
  • Boosts mood and mental health
  • Can promote weight loss
  • Good for motivation
  • Effective for burning calories and building strength

Why You Should Do Fartlek Training

Fartlek is a Swedish word and roughly translated means ‘speed play’. Fartlek training involves varying the intensity or speed of your run to improve your fitness and endurance. Fartlek sessions are usually performed for a minimum of 45 minutes and intensity can vary from walking, right up to sprinting.

A fartlek run can be as simple as picking up the pace in between a stop sign, traffic light, etc. mixing up a variety of varied speeds and efforts levels. An interval workout is a short, repeated bout of hard effort followed by a recovery period of very easy running.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • It’s a great test for strength and endurance
  • It improves speed and race tactics
  • It improves the mind over matter game
  • It improves your ability to put on a spurt in races and overtake a competitor when tired or knock seconds off your finish time
  • It is great for getting into the racing mindset as a fartlek session mimics the surges of speed you may put on in a race
  • Incorporating these surges of speed helps runners to gauge and learn how much they can push their body over shorter segments while at the same time keeping enough physical and mental energy in reserve to go the whole distance and complete a race
  • There is a lot of flexibility within the workout
  • A fartlek session can be completed alone or with another runner or in a group

Lower Back

There are three different groups of muscles that help the spine to function. These are:

  • Extensors – these enable standing and lifting (such as the Erector Spinae).
  • Flexors – these allow flexion, bending forward, lifting and arching of the lower back.
  • Obliques – these allow for rotation and help maintain proper posture.

LATISSIMUS DORSI

Although being a predominantly upper back muscle, it does play a synergistic role in extension and lateral flexion of the lumbar spine and is also assists in forced expiration and as an accessory muscle of inspiration.

ERECTOR SPINAE

These are a group of muscles that run the length of your spine and is sheathed by the thoracolumbar fascia.

SERRATUS POSTERIOR INFERIOR

Although this is predominantly a respiration muscle, it works to assist in rotation and extension of the torso and connects on the border between the thoracic and lumbar spine.

Lower back muscle pain is very common and so lower back strengthening should be in everyone’s workout routine.

Why You Should Do Drop Set Training

A drop set is an advanced resistance training technique in which you focus on completing a set until failure — or the inability to do another repetition. Then, you lighten the load by 10–30%, and repeat, with little to no rest in between sets.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • Promote muscle growth
  • Build muscular endurance
  • Efficient with time
  • Boosts mood and mental health
  • Can promote weight loss
  • Good for motivation
  • Good for fast-twitch muscle fibre recruitment

Why You Should Do Interval Training

It’s not as complicated as you might think. Interval training is simply alternating short bursts (example 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (example 1 to 2 minutes) of less intense activity.

Whether you’re a novice exerciser or you’ve been exercising for years, interval training can help you make your workout routine more exciting. Consider the benefits.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • You’ll burn more calories
  • You’ll be more time efficient
  • You’ll improve your aerobic capacity
  • You’ll keep boredom at bay
  • You don’t need necessarily need any special equipment
  • Great for motivation and keeping the mind active while training

Abdominals

RECTUS ABDOMINIS

This is your “6-pack” muscle. This muscle is essential for maintaining good posture and is primarily responsible for flexing the lumbar spine. It also helps to regulate your breathing and plays a vital role in protecting your internal organs by creating intra-abdominal pressure. The muscle group can be worked in 2 different ways – bringing the chest to the pelvis (as in a “crunch”) or by bringing the pelvis towards the chest (as in a leg raise).

EXTERNAL OBLIQUES

These are the largest of your abdominal muscles. They allow your torso to twist as well as supporting your overall posture, pulling your chest down, and like the rectus abdominis, they help protect your vital organs.

INTERNAL OBLIQUES

These control the twisting and turning movement of the torso on the same side of your body. i.e., when you twist to the right, your right internal oblique and left external oblique both contract at the same time.

TRANSVERSE ABDOMINIS

This is your deepest set of abdominal muscles. It is integral to holding your whole abdominal structure together.