Saturday's Workout

I normally rest on weekends, but this morning, when my wife started getting ready for her kickboxing class, I felt like a slacker. So I trudged into the garage to give the "Tabata This" workout a try:

• Tabata Row
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Squat
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Pull-up
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Push-up
• Rest 1 minute
• Tabata Sit-up

Each exercise is performed as a Tabata set: 8 intervals of 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest. After doing all 8 intervals of one exercise, rest for one minute before moving onto the next exercise. The entire workout (including breaks) takes exactly 24 minutes.



Your "Tabata This" score is calculated by totaling the least number of reps you were able to crank out in any of the 8 intervals (or, in the case of the row, the least number of calories burned during any of the eight intervals).

Results: Hoo boy. Here's how I did, round by round:

• Tabata Row: 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5

• Tabata Squats: 18 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18

• Tabata Pull-Ups: 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3

• Tabata Push-Ups: 20 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13

• Tabata Sit-Ups: 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15

My score: 5 + 18 + 3 + 13 + 15 = 54

The row and squats made my legs burn, but the pull-ups and push-ups were the moves that really did me in.