20 Minute Tabata

You don't need to spend an hour in the gym to get amazing results.

While you can carve a toned body in less than a half hour, to reap all the rewards — increased metabolic rate, strength, power, endorphin high — truncated workouts must be ridiculously intense. I'm talking sweating after 30 seconds intense.. Your goal when doing a tabata workout is to have someone come up to you to see if you're alright, that's when you know your workout is working.

After a tabata workout I look like I've been in a shower – my hair literally dripping with sweat.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Tabata protocol here are the cole's notes: Four minutes of max exertion effort consisting of 8 rounds of 20 seconds maximal effort + 10 seconds rest. As science has it, those four minutes are worth the equivalent of a half hour of steady-state cardio.

Here's my favourite take anywhere tabata:

1. Tuck Jumps

2. Mountain Climbers

3. Jump Lunges

4. Pull-ups (or push-ups if you don't have a bar)

Warm-up for five minutes – running or any other cardio machine. Then perform exercise one (tuck jumps) for the total 8 rounds then rest for 60 seconds and move on to exercise two (mountain climbers). Follow the same sequence for the subsequent exercises.

Ready set go!