Attempted murder!

There was a mass attempted murder at the gym today. Or, I learned a new swear word.

Tabata.

I showed up at the gym this morning, expecting my usual body pump class. I knew the instructor was in Cancun, and she would have a sub. But, I thought it would be more of the same. Oh, how wrong I was.

I knew this particular instructor who was subbing had a reputation for being really, really tough, but I've never actually worked with her. My first hint was when she had people put away any 3 lb weights because nobody needs that. Huh. Maybe we'll do fewer sets with heavier weights?

No. No no no no no no no no.

&^^$#%^%&^*&%*^&

She said she wanted this workout to be the toughest one we did all month. I can't speak for the others, but it certainly was for me.

I sweated during this class like I haven't in a weights class. Ever. My heart rate was definitely up. It definitely felt like I was getting cardio in as well. It felt a lot more effective than traditional weights, or even cardio, because I didn't hate it like I hate running.

After I got home and could move my arms again, I did some research on Tabata, and was really impressed with what I read. They've found that people who do the high intervals increased their aerobic AND anaerobic capacities significantly more than those who just did moderate cardio. I think I'm definitely going to try and incorporate this into my workouts more.

I've heard interval training is really good for me, but never did it more than one or two workouts. But, my intervals were nothing like this, so maybe that was the difference.