TRAVERSE CITY -- With the summer months approaching more and more people are considering getting into shape.  During the past two days on 7&4 News Today we have been featuring some ideas about healthy eating and exercise.

Stacy Jago, a certified personal trainer shows us how to take on simple, yet effective work out routine that you can do right in the comfort of your own home.  It's called Tabata Training. 

Here is some information about it:

• The basis of Tabata Training is 4 minutes of intense interval training/circuit training. What you are doing is taking an exercise we'll use sprints as an example here.
• Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds
• Walk for 10 seconds
• Repeat 7 more times for a total of 8 sets.

So what you have is a total of 4 minutes of workout time.

Tabata Training can be done with a number of different exercises.

The idea is to use an exercise that gets the whole body involved or at least the major muscle groups. Tabata Training can be done with Barbells, Dumbbells, Kettlebells or just Bodyweight exercises.

Tabata Training was developed by Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in in Tokyo, Japan.

• How To Do Tabata Training
  What you want to do is the most reps you can of a particular exercise in 20 seconds. We'll use dumbbell thrusts. It helps if you have a clock with a second hand that you can see clearly.
• You want to be able to look at the clock while doing the exercise. If possible have someone time you and count your reps. This will help you with your concentration on what your doing especially as you start to tire.
• Start out with light weights this is not bodybuilding and pay close attention to exercise form especially as you begin to tire to prevent injury. Remember the key to burning off that body fat is raising your metabolism.
• Try Tabata Training once or twice a week, (depending on your conditioning level) to start with.

Your aiming to do 8 sets, once you can do 8-10 reps on your last set add a little weight or another session per week to increase intensity.

For more information or to contact certified personal trainer, Stacy Jago click here.