A common ad I see in most issues of The Atlantic is one for ROM, The Four Minute CrossTrainer, which claims to provide a complete non-impact cardio, resistance- and flexibility workout in 4 minutes a day. What's the price of this fairy tale exercise machine?
A cool $14,615.
The webpage mentions it has been a marketing nightmare. I wonder why?
The ROM came up on the NY Giants Fan Forum I frequent, and someone mentioned looking up Tabata Intervals, which claim to do much the same thing. Or at least it takes High Intensity Interval Training to another level in just 4 minutes. It's 20 seconds of max intensity followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times. A random blog post that came up in a google search does a better job of giving background than I would, but Tabata, the Japanese scientist after which the regimen is named, found that interval approach did more to increase both anaerobic capacity and aerobic capacity than would an hour a day of more moderate exercise.
I did see some other random comment to be in good shape already before attempting, but that won't deter me. I'll give it a go on the Concept 2. When I rowed Thursday, I found an inefficiency I was making. When I first started, I read to go strapless on the feet to improve form. I did that for a while, but I went back to straps when I got the C2. I went without Thursday and I found I had to stay more upright (95-100 degrees) to not going flying off the footpad. With straps, I was going to maybe 120 degrees, which increased the time of the stroke without any real benefit. With that improvement, I think I can do 1:45 at max (the lowest I've pulled is a 1:35 pace for 500m). The C2 allows for 6 seconds of drift (ie, still accrue meters with no pull for the first 6 seconds), so that leaves a total of 3:28 to get meters. If I can go 1:45 over 3:28, I'd approach 1000 meters in that time, which sounds optimistic since my fastest 1000 is around 3:50. Then again, doing this workout in terms of trying to achieve a certain number of meters is probably wrong headed. And it wouldn't be a 4 minute workout since I'd want to warm up for 500-1000 meters. It also assumes I have the heart or desire to finish the workout strong. I'll make sure Joanne is around when I try it.
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Finally mustered the courage to do it. I know, 4 minutes, scary!
The performance dropped off noticeably for each interval (though I only set it to record for every minute). I finished with 949m, within shouting distance of approaching 1000m. I don't think it killed me--I think I've felt worse after a good 5000m, but it seems to lingering longer.
An area to focus on next time is the starts. The 10 second rest was enough to really slow down the fan, so the starts were pretty close to a regular start and I think my form broke down, using a lot of arm rather than legs and not doing a half stroke or two to get going.
I also over relied on strokes rather than power--on the first interval, I got up to 38spm--a normal fast 2000, i top out at 28spm, but that may matter less with the Tabata.
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