I’m taking a vacation from food and wine…

… or I’m sure I will when I get back.  There’s really only so much red wine and rich food one can eat.  Who am I kidding… I’d keep going as long as my wallet would allow.

My girl Lauren can through with a post that is sure to inspire some fitness.  She certainly inspired me!  I couldn’t WAIT to meet her at Blend – any one that works full time and teaches 2 types of fitness classes is a hero to me.  The fact that she had a local brewery tour organized confirmed that we would be fast-friends.  Today she brings a guest post with one of my new favorite forms of exercise – Tabata.  I have a Pinterest board full of ideas, and Lauren has a few more for you here!

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Hello! I’m Lauren, author of the blog Oatmeal After Spinning. I’ve been a loyal reader of Sprint 2 The Table for a while now, and was so happy to actually meet and hang out with Laura at the Blend Retreat last month (wow, Laura – can you believe it’s been a month??).

Like Laura, I’m a big fan of good food, wine + beer and a great kick-butt workout. But, I have to admit – I’m a creature of comfort. I tend to fall into a comfortable routine and just stay there, because, well… it’s just easier that way.

I’m a Spinning and Bodypump instructor, and teach a minimum of 4 days a week (with back to back classes on two of those days). Because of that, I kind of got stuck in the same routine. On the days that I wasn’t teaching, I would usually just go zone out on the elliptical for an hour, since that didn’t take a lot of mental energy as compared to teaching a group exercise class. I was doing the same thing, week after week, and not noticing too many positive changes in my body.

While at the Blend Retreat, I participated in two bootcamp style classes. I had done similar workouts before, but had forgotten how much I loved them! I loved that I could get such an intense workout in a shorter amount of time – and that it was fun!

The fitness part of the bootcamp is really great. There’s a new workout posted each morning, and each is less that 30 minutes. I’ve been learning so many great new exercises through the program, and will continue with using many of the workouts long after the 12 weeks have ended.

My absolute favorite “new to me” discovery is Tabata style workouts. Tabata is a style of high-intensity interval training. The goal is to work at an extremely high level of intensity for a short amount of time. Each exercise is performed in a 4-minute interval, which consists of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 8 times. There’s a good article on Shape.com here.

You could add 1 or 2 Tabatas onto a regular workout routine, or do a combination of them for your entire workout. The FitMixer bootcamp combines 5 Tabatas together, with one minute of rest in between each for a total of 25 minutes. And let me tell you- that 25 minutes is all you need!

I’ve even started creating Tabata workouts of my own to do before I teach class. I like a combination of different exercises that hit all of the major muscle groups, like this:

1. Squat Jumps
2. Push Ups
3. Burpees
4. Supermans
5. Mountain Climbers

Editor’s Pictorial Note:

These types of workouts are really great for anyone who is short on time (and who isn’t?) or wants to constantly change up their routine. I’ll tell you from experience (from someone who is quite guilty of this) it feels great to break out of my comfort zone!

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Actually, I may do this in my hotel room today… 50 seconds on, 10 seconds rest is my fav “strategy.”

Do you like Tabata-style workouts?

What is your favorite body-weight move?  Burpees?  I love-hate them.  So effective, but so painful.