Saturday 24 April 2010

Upper Body Tabata Intervals

Location: My House
Date: 23rd April

Workout: Mixed Tabata Intervals

Total Time: 9 minutes
Post Workout Nutrition: sardines and boiled eggs, 1 hour & 10 mins later.

I only wanted to hit the upper body, so I took the four exercises that avoided the legs and did each one twice in each Tabata set of 8. It did two Tabatas in total. It was, as any Tabata should be, tough, but the absence of quad involvement did keep me out of the vomit zone.

Floor Press - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Bent Over Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Seated Knee Raises - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Upright Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Floor Press - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Bent Over Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Seated Knee Raises - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Upright Row - 20 seconds

1 minute rest, then the same again.

The weights I chose we pretty low, but I find that when you are doing Tabata-style high speed, high intensity reps, it's very difficult to go too light. Lighter means faster, which means more effort. You still end up struggling towards the end of the 3rd and 4th set.

Update: I have changed the exercise from Press Ups to Floor Press - this was a copy and paste error - my comment below about not doing press ups should now make more sense!

6 comments:

Gemma said...

That work out sounds tough. I would have to try a bodyweight version of that. Just to be sure, did you do two lots of tabata intervals? And did you do a workout before it?

Thanks,
Gemma aka AnonymousJ

Methuselah said...

Gemma - yes, two lots. No workout beforehand, and nothing afterwards. I just put everything I had into those 9 minutes. I have tried bodyweight versions myself, but failure on press ups or pull ups comes too soon when you do them as if your life depended on it (or at least it does for me!)

Methuselah said...

Gemma - see update to post. I did not actually do press ups in that session, but floor press...

Chinchin said...

Thanks for sharing that routine. Sounds like a great time saver. I've only done Tabata squats and situps before.

Gemma said...

Hi Methuselah,

Thanks for the update. I actually didn't know what a floor press was until I watched the video linked to the post.

If I did bodyweight tabata, I would have to switch between core and upper body, or upper body then lower, or something like that. Tabata seems pretty intense enough just doing jumping jacks let alone press ups.

Methuselah said...

Gemma - definately - rotating around upper, lower and mid are the best way to ensure muscle fatigue doesn't overly get in the way of the primary objective - to get fit!