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Carey sent me this Shape article and though I have no plans to do it, I'll post about it here.

But it's worth it. Doing as little as 4 minutes (or one "Tabata") can increase your aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, VO2 max, resting metabolic rate, and can help you burn more fat (and make you look 200-percent leaner) than a traditional 60-minute aerobic workout. That's right—4 minutes of Tabata can get you better fitness gains than an entire hour of running on the treadmill.

The trick to getting all these benefits is the level of intensity. To do a Tabata, an exercise developed in the '70's for Japanese Olympians, all you have to do is pick a cardio activity such as running, jumping rope, or biking and go as hard as you can for 20 seconds. Follow that with 10 seconds of rest and repeat seven more times. And when I say "as hard as you can go," I mean 100-percent maximal intensity. By the end of the 4 minutes you should feel like you're going to die.

This sounds like something that'd be more fun to bet someone else they can't do than to do yourself. 🙂

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