This high intensity interval training workout burns off the kilojoules like no other workout.
In July last year we featured a Tabata workout and the feedback was phenomenal. Tabata is a Japanese interval-training system where you perform 20-second strength intervals, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for a total of four minutes. It's high-intensity, highly effective training and it burns fat like no other workout.
Hold a dumbbell in each hand by your shoulders, palms facing inwards, elbows tucked into your ribs. Press one dumbbell up to the ceiling, rotating your palm to the front as you raise, until it is extended overhead. Without pausing, lower the dumbbell back to your shoulder, turning your palm inward again. Repeat with the other arm. Brace your abs, don't arch your back and keep your gaze on the horizon in front of you.
Stand on top of a knee-high bench or chair. Keeping your spine long and your gaze fixed on the horizon in front of you, lower one leg backwards off the chair until your forefoot lightly touches the ground. Then spring up and place the foot back on top of the chair. Repeat with your other foot. Try to keep your knee in line with your second toe at all times.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take a long stride forward, maintaining the width between your feet. Once your front foot lands, lower your back knee towards the ground in a lunge. Lift your back heel off the ground and lower your back knee to just off the ground. Keep your torso upright and don't let your front knee go beyond your toes. At the bottom, push back up until you are standing and repeat immediately with the other leg.
Hold a barbell in the middle in an overhand grip, thumbs almost touching. Stand with legs wide and toes turned out. With soft knees and a long spine, lower the bar down to below your knees by bending at the waist as though bowing. Pause at the bottom, then rise. At the top, push your hips forward and squeeze your glutes. Perform an upright row (pictured), pulling the bar up your torso, elbows as high as possible. Lower and start your next rep.
Sit on a Swiss ball and lower your upper body back until it is horizontal and your lower back is on the ball. Your back should be slightly hyper-extended. Place your fingertips on your temples. Sit up and, at the same time, twist, taking your right elbow across your body towards your left knee. Stop short of upright, slowly lower until your mid-back lightly touches the ball and repeat on the other side. If you are doing these correctly, you'll feel the burn.
Choose four of the five exercises. Set up a circuit so you can move easily between exercises. Do as many reps of exercise one in 20 seconds as you can. Rest for 10 seconds while you move to the next exercise. Keep going like this for four to 10 minutes in total. Then, if you are not too tired, pick another four exercises and go again.
Choose one of today's exercises. Do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this eight times. Count your reps - your score is your lowest rep total of the eight completed sets. Have a two-minute break and repeat this format with another exercise. If you're feeling good, try eight rounds of all five exercises.
Jodie Parker, 40, a personal trainer and mum of three, is the Australian Open Figure champion for 2010.
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