This 20-Minute Tabata Workout Beats an Hour on the Treadmill

Get your workout on with this 20 minute Tabata workout that beats an hour on the treadmill. A major part of every healthy lifestyle is exercise. We all hear how important exercise is but sometimes it can be hard to find the motivation, or find a routine that we really enjoy. The main thing is, you should enjoy your workout, so it's always recommended to find something that you love to do rather than something that you dread doing. Design your life so that your workout is a part of your everyday life. Usually, it's easiest to get your workout done in the morning right after you wake up and have a little something to eat. If you feel more comfortable doing your workout on an empty stomach, you can, but sometimes it's better to have fueled your body up with a light breakfast before you start exercising. You can have a good protein shake or a smoothie or green juice, just something light to get your body going. Another thing you can do is set an alarm in your phone to remind you to do your workout in the morning. It may be hard to keep up with it at first, but after the first month or two, it will become a part of your regular routine.

This Tabata workout gives you the same effects as a 60-minute workout, which is great for busy people. Tabata is high-intensity interval training which is comprised of doing short, yet intense exercises really quickly. People love doing this style of workout because it's super efficient. During one of these workouts you work really hard for 20 seconds and take a break for 10, and you do four rounds of the exercises. You'll be tired, but it will feel good to have done some really good exercise, and the best part is, you don't even have to leave home to do it. Tabata was created by Dr. Izumi Tabata, a scientist in Japan who did studies with two groups of people exercising differently. The first group did an hour of moderate exercise five days a week, and the other group did high-intensity workouts for four minutes, four days a week. The results were amazing. The first group of people showed good cardiovascular (heart) strength, but little improvement with their muscular results. The second group who did exercise for less time overall, yet at a higher intensity, showed amazing improvements in both cardiovascular health and muscular health. The higher intensity workouts had an amazing effect on the test subject's overall health and wellbeing, improving metabolism, heart health, and muscle tone. That's enough to get most people to try it out for themselves.

This exercise routine from Woman's Health shows you how to create your own Tabata routine to add to your healthy lifestyle. The workout consists of a total of 8 exercises like burpees, mountain climbers, squat jumps, and high knees. You just do each move for a total of 20 seconds as hard as you can go and then rest for 10 seconds before you start the next exercise. Once you have finished one round, of each exercise, you start again with the first exercise and cycle through in the same way for a total of 4 times. If you are just starting out with this exercise, be sure to only do as much as you feel comfortable with. If you're a beginner, perhaps start out with one round for the first week and then work your way up to two rounds next week. Enjoy these exercises and design your life to embrace health and fitness.***