If you know me at all, you know I love the Tabata Protocol.  Basically…

20 seconds of high intensity exercise, 10 seconds rest… repeated 8 times

The entire workout takes less than 4 minutes.  But don’t let the short duration fool you… these workouts are very tough and very effective for building cardiorespiratory endurance and burning fat.

One of the things I recommend is using bodyweight exercises with the Tabata Protocol.  This is a very tough full-body workout that blurs the lines between strength training and cardio… and is a great quick workout.

I found these videos where Zuzana takes you through a 20 minute workout using bodyweight exercises and Tabata Protocol.  Give it a try if you are think you can handle it.  (I think you’ll have a new respect for bodyweight exercise after this).

Exercise 1: One Legged Mountain Climbers

Exercise 2: Baby Push Ups

Exercise 3: Slide Lunges & Lateral Arm Extensions

Exercise 4: Bike Crunches

Exercise 5: Side Slide Lunge & Bicep Curl

There are a couple of things I hope you take away from this 20 minute Tabata Workout…

#1:  Bodyweight exercise is great for a cardio workout. Too often I see exercisers gravitate to the exercise bike, treadmill or row machine for a “cardio” workout.  They forget, or it never occurred to them, that their own body is the best exercise equipment.  I really like using bodyweight exercises for cardio because it gives you a combined full-body workout as well as build endurance.

For more information on this, download my free report: Bodyweight Exericise Cardio Intervals

#2: Bodyweight exercise can be VERY challenging. A lot of exercisers think they need to lift weights to get a great workout.  This is just not so… as I’m sure any of you who have tried the above workout will testify to.

I believe EVERY complete workout program should include bodyweight exercises. Just think about it… exercise is about movement. You are either moving your own body, or you are moving a weighted object.  You need to train BOTH movements to prepare yourself for the challenges of sport, work and life.  DON’T neglect your bodyweight training.

For those of you who want a COMPLETE bodyweight workout program, I recommend Ultimate Gymless Workout.

I hope you enjoyed the workout from Zuzana, and have a new found appreciation for bodyweight training.

Eddie Lomax

Many exercisers (both athletes and non-athletes), are under the impression they don’t need bodyweight training. But bodyweight only exercise should not be ignored if you want to improve fitness, burn fat and build a high-performance body. Let’s look at how bodyweight training can benefit both athletes and regular exercisers.

Here is what happens: We have been brainwashed to believe physical training is resistance Training (weight lifting) and Cardio. We do sets and reps of a certain exercise to target a certain muscle group with certain rest periods. Then after we are done treating the body like a bunch of parts, we do some aerobic cardio to improve the heart and lungs. Athletes and non-athletes thing doing a workout without only their own bodyweight is too easy because added resistance is not applied. And the thing is, if you are going to use this predominately bodybuilding style of training, they are probably right.

However, to get the most performance benefits out of your training, the body needs to be trained as one complete unit. The entire body, all the muscles as well as the heart and lungs should be challenged at the same time. The lines between resistance training and cardio training need to be blurred. I would ask the athletes, “Is your sport done in a compartmentalized way with robotic actions where strength and cardiorespiratory endurance are separate? Or, is your entire body needed to work in unison in order to excel at your sport?” Bodyweight training is great for switching between strength exercises and “cardio” exercises seamlessly… which is an excellent way to train.

Plus, exercise is really a question of movement. And there are two types of movement: moving your own body through space, and moving objects through space. I would argue that for most athletes, being able to control and move your own body around with strength, balance, flexibility and coordination is going to help your perform better. And for the regular exerciser, bodyweight training is important to prepare your for the physical and mental challenges you face in your everyday life.

My recommendation is to blur the lines between strength training and cardiorespiratory training in the same bodyweight workout. For example, complete a circuit of push up, air squats and crunches as fast as possible without rest, and then do 50 jumping jacks before repeating the circuit 2-5 times… and repeat for 20 minutes without rest. This type of bodyweight workout targets all your muscles as well as your heart and lungs and trains the body to work as one complete unit.

I encourage you to add bodyweight training to your overall workout program regardless of whether you are a high-performance athlete or just a regular exerciser trying to improve fitness and control your weight. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how effective bodyweight training can be. And when your heart is pounding, your breathing is hard and you are laying on the ground in a pool of your own sweat, ask yourself… “Are bodyweight exercises too easy?”

If you haven’t done so already, get a free copy of my “Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals” report.

Click Here To Get The Report