Hard Week: Tabata, Sprints and some Weights

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date:15th - 17th June

Tuesday
- Tabata Rowing Machine - almost 100% effort (resistance level 5)

Total time: 5 minutes (includes 1 minute warm up)
Food: eggs, blueberries, cinnamon 60 minutes later.

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Thursday
- Chin Ups: as many as I could do = 16

- Dumbbell bench press alternated with Romanian Deadlift (with dumbbells)
(bench - 3 x 5 @ 30kg, 2 x 5 @ 28kg) (deads - 5 x 5 @ 36kg - easy)

- Sprints: 3 x 30 seconds in the studio - 60 - 120 seconds rest between each (30 seconds = about 6 studio lengths)

Total time: 25 minutes
Food: eggs, blueberries, cinnamon (again!) 60 minutes later.

I've just read a blog post, The Tabata Myth and commented on it. The session on Tuesday left me walking around in pain for about 3 minutes. With normal exercise, when you stop, you feel better - especially if you are already quite fit, as I am. So I suspect I am doing the Tabatas properly. He may be right to question how proven Tabata's effectiveness is. However, as I say in my comment, it is so quick and efficient that I would be happy even if it were not as effective as 30 minutes of circuit training.

The sprints were slightly easier than last time. By this I mean that my legs felt less violated by the end of the third sprint. I had intended to do a fourth, since that would represent progress from the last session. But since I will be doing some tough hill training with the weight vest on tomorrow (like this), it seemed sensible to hold back.