December 12, 2010

Tabatas = So Freaking Amazing…

…if they don’t kill you. But, you know, in a good way.

I didn’t end up running the Roxbury Marathon yesterday (take that, John!), in part due to a very scary experience Friday night. Major thanks to all of you who are my Facebook friends and tried to help – after a lot of discussion on Saturday, the consensus amongst my friends is that someone likely slipped something in my drink at happy hour. Very, very scary, but now I am fine with no lasting effects. Let that be a PSA to all of you though – make sure you keep an eye on your drink whenever you’re out, and always always go out with friends you trust who can take care of you in case of emergency.

Anyway, yesterday I laid low during the day thanks to my Friday night ordeal, going to a friend’s birthday brunch in the afternoon but passing on the drinks. Of course, at night I negated all that when my sorority “Big” sister peer pressured me into ditching the alcohol ban and doing dinner and a holiday party with her. I was glad she did though – I had a blast!

Along with Santa, though, the holiday party came complete with lots of holiday cookies, cakes, and candies. Yikes! I passed on the candy cane but had more than my fair share of the other goodies. I woke up this morning still feeling stuffed, so I compensated by spending the day being super productive: cooking a delicious saffron squash soup with mint lime crema for lunch (mine wasn’t quite as pretty as those pics due to my lack of an immersion blender, so I’m not posting it), cleaning out my apartment and actually finding a way to rearrange the living room and have room for a new dropleaf table (hello, dinner parties!), and hitting the gym for a hardcore workout. Which brings us back to the tabatas I referenced at the start of my post.

Seriously, you guys, tabatas are fabulous. Since today is “kill the legs day”*, I did a 2 minute walking warmup on the treadmill, followed by 10 tabatas at a 2.0 incline and 10.0mph pace (that’s 20 seconds on, 10 seconds on the rails and trying to catch your breath and remain upright until the next set), followed by 2 minute walking cooldown. Next! Some leg presses, dead lifts, lunges, and squats (not using tabata principles, because the idea didn’t occur to me yet)… and I was sweaty and spent.

*Not to be confused with tomorrow’s “break my arms day” or Tuesday’s “bust my core day.” This threesome is my new rotation that allows me to work out every day, get rest for each muscle group, and yet not have to worry about figuring out which exact muscle group I’m working, since those categories are pretty obvious.

I came back up to my apartment and decided to Google “tabatas,” to see what more I could learn about these wonderful little devils. Lo and behold, I learned that people do them with weights as well! After watching this video, I dragged out my dumbbells and my exercise ball (poor exercise ball gets used so infrequently… but now it can be used as a butt bouncer to check my squat form and make sure I’m not cheating!) and went at it – 10 sets, 15 pounds of extra weight. And then did a set a of single leg deadlifts – again, 10 sets, 15 pounds of extra weight. And now, I am spent.

Oh tabatas, how I heart thee! Anyone else have tabata tips to share?

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2 thoughts on “Tabatas = So Freaking Amazing…”

  1. That is super scary! glad you are ok. I want to try the tabatas, but the treadmill at my gym is not fancy enough to do it easily. Maybe on the trail one day.

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