Tabata Class: Week 1, Day 1

It's been ten minutes since I got out of my post-Tabata shower and I'm still sweating.

It was that good.

I moved to Columbus, Ohio, last Tuesday, joined Lifestyle Family Fitness (Henderson) on Friday, and found myself this morning at 6:30 a.m. doing a killer workout called the Tabata protocol.

The personal trainer who sweet-talked me into talking this class, Melanie Dana, has a killer body and was able to keep smiling as she told us how hard this five-week class would be. I was (and am) ready to get my butt kicked to lose the thirty pounds I've been carrying around since my daughter's birth (she'll be 3 in the fall). So there I was, with four other people, sweating it out on stationary bikes at the crack of dawn this morning.

Tabata promises a great workout in just 14 minutes. Anything that sounds too good to be true probably is, but I have to agree that I worked harder in the time that Melanie pushed me this morning that I probably have since high school (and that was 20 years ago).

(Read more at: The secret of Tabata: this 14-minute workout may be the best you've ever had!
Men's Fitness, May, 2004, by Alex Koch)

The structure is interval training: 20-second bursts of speed followed by 10 seconds of rest at a slightly lower intensity. It can be done with biking, running, swimming, etc. While my "burst of speed" definitely won't break any records, the class did kick my butt and I'm prepared to kick butt right back.

Good thing too, as we do it again tomorrow at 6:30 a.m.