More on Exercise

Our family exercise has morphed again. Here's the new wrinkle: the Tabata protocol. The what? Google the word Tabata and you'll find references to some Japanese guys, and more specifically a Dr. Tabata. He is an exercise researcher who discovered that doing very intense exercise for 20 seconds then a 10 second rest, then another blast of intensity for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do it for eight rounds. That's only four minutes of exercise.

Some typical exercises done with the protocol are squats, pushups, and pullups. In the Lieberman family, we haven't tried the pullups yet. But we do the squats on a regular basis. We also do burpees and bear crawls. I'm not the first one to say it, but I'll repeat it. "Twenty seconds never seemed so long, and ten seconds never seemed so short." It is sheer agony by the fifth and sixth rounds. So why do them? The results are spectacular. No equipment required. And the time commitment is short.

For us the squats are the most intense, then burpees and finally bear crawls. By the way bear crawls are when you move around on your hands and feet without touching your knees to the floor.

Try it out and tell us what you think.