2017 January Tabata Challenge Week 1 Tally

This marks the end of the first week of the 2017 January Tabata Challenge. It has been great for me! I am enjoying an increase in capacity to do push-ups, pull-ups, and ab work. My squats, which were not so bad have gotten much better. I am feeling great! Everyone around me has noted that my attitude has improved tremendously. Why wouldn’t it? Exercising beats out every pharmaceutical on the market for lifting people out of depression, improving one’s outlook on life, and increasing the brain’s production of positive endorphins. This also, by the way, positively impact the hypothalamus, located in the amygdala. What? Where? Why? These organs in the brain are the center of our emotional states.

In short, depression will affect the amygdala. Over time, the amygdala shrinks. This makes it way more difficult to get out of depression. Enter anti-depressant drugs. Do they make us feel better? Yes, but they do nothing for the amygdala. It is far better to repair the damage done. Exercise helps in this endeavor.

Enter our Tabata Challenge. Not only are we all burning massive calories during the workout, but for up to two hours after the workout we are burning calories at an accelerated rate. The rate of burn will vary based on your body size and body fat percentage, but most studies show that our after burn effect can last for up to two hours and burn an additional 225 calories. While that sounds great, and I do like those numbers, yes, they could be more impressive; however, what nearly every study has forgotten is the anaerobic impact that this training has on us.

By building muscle we are increasing our resting metabolism. This increase in our metabolism when we are not training burns more calories. Muscles urn calories in order to exist and move. One pound of muscle is going to burn around six to 10 calories to remain healthy. That is quality calories. This also includes training to keep those muscles, right? Right!

Tabata drills are burning up our glycogen at an accelerated pace while doing them. We get to enjoy an after burn. AND we have some more muscle to gobble up a few more calories while bopping about during the day. Think about all of those mundane things each of us do. Walking about the office, yard work, chasing the kids about the house & getting them to school, shopping, and whatever else you may have on your list. All those activities now use more calories because you have more muscle to take you through them. How cool is that?

Anyway, truth time … my bodyweight at the beginning of the week was 240 pounds tonight, after my PT session is … 236 pounds. This week I have dropped 4 pounds. None too shabby for one week. Woo-hoo!!

So, how about you? How have you progressed this week?