Tabatas for a Day

It's cold in the house (snow blowing around outside!)... and I know I will feel a chill all day long. So to combat that, I will do a creative thing for my workout today- and see how it goes.

One tabata per hour, all day long. A tabata is only 4 minutes... but there is usually nothing "only" about those 4 minutes by the time you are done! I plan to use my FitDecks to randomly select something to do each hour and we'll see how it goes. If I select a FitDeck card that isn't tabata-fit, then I will flip over the next card- or pick a move from INSANITY for a real challenge! I have 3 decks I will use: Bodyweight, Dumbbell, and Combat Sports. For the dumbbell moves, I will go slightly lighter than my normal for weight training. I have a tabata timer on my iTouch that I will use.

For those who don't know, a tabata is 20 seconds of maxing out a move, then rest for 10 seconds. Then 20 seconds back on, then rest for 10. Repeat the cycle (of 30 secs) a total of 8 times, up to the 4 minutes. Sounds easy, but it's not, especially once your muscles start reaching fatigue and those 10 second breaks aren't much of a break anymore- and those 20 seconds feel like a minute!

Now that it is 7am, I will be sure to get one done this hour- and will update this note all day long with what turns up! By the time I hit 11pm tonight, I will have done 68 minutes of tabatas. Even if I happen to miss an hour or two- I'm hoping I will get at least an hour of workout in today... 4 minutes at a time. (Or do 2 back-to-back on the hour- that's a possiblilty, too- if I need to free up a chunk of time for the kids or something.)

7am hour: Bodyweight deck, Side Leg Lifts (4 min/8 cycles each leg- for about 160 total leg lifts)
8am hour: Combat deck, Rear Thrusting Kick (mule kicks with alternating legs (ea. 20-sec cycle), while on hands & balls of feet, knees kept bent) Blasting my lower body this morning! But this one worked my shoulders/core for positioning, too!
9am hour: Dumbbell deck, 1-Leg Balance and Drop (basically a one-legged deadlift while balancing with a weight on that same side)- didn't extend my arm fully out; used 10lb weight. Alternated leg with each 20-sec cycle. Lower body is blasted again! What's next?!?
10am: Bodyweight deck, Supermans (oh yeah- 20 sec of the superman gets TOUGH!) But at least it's not LEGS again!
11am: Combat deck, Jump with Rotation (This one got me huffing/puffing! But still not as much as INSANITY because it's only 4 minutes long! Anyway- the card says to turn 90 degrees, but I did 180. More used to jump rotations done that way, so that's what I did.)
noon: Dumbbell deck, 1-Arm Row (15lb weight, did each arm for 4 cycles then switched. Averaged about 10 reps in 20 secs. Repeated tabata again- but with 10lb weight, so each arm gets 8 cycles total; averaged about 12-13 reps per 20 secs.) Yay for an upper-body move, finally!
1pm: Bodyweight deck, Wall Squats (OUCH!!!! Especially the last 2 sets. 'Nuf said.)
2pm: Combat deck, One Arm tripod (works the core!!! Alternated sides.)
3pm: Dumbbell deck, Bicep Curls (10 lb weights- and it was TOUGH by the end! Fatigue cut my reps in half by then. I found that surprising! But yes- there WILL be soreness later after that one.)
4pm: Bodyweight deck, Lunges (alternated legs, across my workout space and back; probably should've used weights- this was too easy)
5pm: Combat deck, Hip Up (or Heels to the Sky- serious ab work! Supposed to raise hips up and hold for 3 seconds- but my abs cramped up on the first one! Yikes! So I just did pulses from that point on. My abs are not ready to HOLD that position for 3 secs at a time!)
6pm: Dumbbell deck, Sumo Squats (2- 10lb weights, managed about 10 squats in 20sec- so 80 reps with 20 lbs. I'm gonna be sore!)
7pm: Bodyweight deck, Wide Pushups (ugh! Did them on knees; started out with about 15 in a set, halfway through, it was down to 10... then by the end, it was only about 6. What- about 85-90 WIDE pushups total?!?! Really? Did I mention that I will be SORE from all this?!?)
8pm: Combat deck, Horse Stance (or Sumo Squat holds... and I don't know which is worse, these, or the wall squats??)
9pm: Dumbbell deck, Shoulder Raises (Started with 8lbs for 3 sets, then went to 5lbs to finish the rest.)
10pm: Bodyweight deck, Cross Country (like being on a Nordic track, but you have to jump to move your feet instead of just sliding them. Or scissor runs in INSANITY. Finally- a good cardio one!)
11pm: Combat deck, Mule Kicks (I think I've been kicked by a mule!! These are TOUGH!! I had to grab short breaks during this one, sneaking a second or two (or three) in addition to the given breaks.)

What a way to finish the tabatas for the day!! 17 tabatas!!! Go, me!! :-D Okay- so I know it's not like doing that many consecutively (you'd seriously DIE) but I know my body will feel it by the weekend.

I will just log into WOWY, an hour for today, sometime during the day for my workout. No way will I try to do 4-minute log-ins all day long! I don't think the system would allow for that anyway!

Always mix things up to keep the workouts interesting!!! Who says you can't find time to get a workout in??? :-D