All Tabata all the time

A

AKUFADUM

New Member
Hey Guys,

I saw the most interesting thing yesterday at the gym.
A guy who is rather lean and put together I would say he was about 230 @ 8%BF.

Did his entire workout Tabata style.
I asked what his routine was

He does this Mon/Thurs
Bench
Row
Chins
Dips
Military
Squats

He would do each for 4 minutes tabata style and rest for 4 minutes between exercises.

And on Tues/Fri
He said he would concentrate on weaker/lagging muscles ie arms, shoulders
but doing them in a normal 3x10.

He says he does this for 4 weeks 3x year.
In between his regular workout, which apparently is a regular Body part split.

I don't know though the guy's physique was pretty impressive. I would think that doing this is a recipe for overtraining or some other disaster no?
 
Did you ask if he was taking any "supplements"?
 
HAHA...

Actually no I didn't.
But I don't think he was an 'enhanced' body builder.
Besides, that is usually recipe for trouble if you ask someone that question.

Personally, I think he was gifted with good genetics. But I could be wrong.
 
Well, I'm actually get pretty happy when someone asks if I'm on the juice, although that doesn't happen very often
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a natural lifter in contest shape (say 3-5%bf) over 200lbs is practically unheard of. 230 at 8% and natural would put him in that unheard of catagorie. having said that the wgt and % were just a guess so, like you, i would rather give someone the benefit of the doubt as its obvious some serious work went into achieving his physique......assistance or not.

as far as the tabata goes. most likely it is the genetics or assist or perhaps not as freq. as he lead you to believe. if you personally had any likelyhood of looking like this guy (230 at 8%) even while not doing anything as taxing and extreme as tabata for 3weeks 4x a yr you would probably know by now.

much like folks who attempt to emulate others w/os because they possess a body type they desire (think sprinters legs, gymnasts upper body etc.) youll quickly find out its the actual w/os + genetics that produce the body. im not saying there isnt some benefit to knowing what they do and even trying it on a certain scale but unless your the other persons twin chances are your results will not be the same.

good luck
 
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(AKUFADUM @ Jun. 12 2008,1:38)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Actually,

I am not thinking about doing it at all.
I shudder to think what could happen to me if tried
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its only two sessions a wk for 4wks i dont think it would do you any harm.
 
You also have to understand that is he is natural you have no idea how long he worked up to the level of doing the entire routine tabata style.

When I was playing football in the off season we did a similar training. The idea was to simulate an entire football game's activity.

We had 30 different stations that involved weights, plyometrics, agility, and cardio. IIRC they estimated that each play to 30 seconds and there was 120 seconds of dead time between plays. You would give an all out effort for 30 seconds and then sprint to the next station. Whistle blows you repeat.

We started at 1x a week and built up to 3x a week. People would fall out left and right at the beginning.

Long story short and to the point. It is all about the level of conditioning and what you have adjusted to.

Myself I have tried tabata twice with front squats. Both times resulted with my head in a trash can looking at my pre-WO shake. Longest 4 mins of my life. So far I am still too much of a puss to do it again.
 
I do, do tabata as cardio post workout doing 'swinging' Kettlebell clean and presses.

but that is only one exercise at the end of the workout. Even still I feel like crawling into a corner and falling asleep.
 
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(faz @ Jun. 13 2008,5:54)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">its only two sessions a wk for 4wks i dont think it would do you any harm.</div>
Exactly...4 weeks is no big deal!
 
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