FITNESS FRIDAY: Four Minutes to Failure

Hello and happy Friday!

Before we begin, I wanted to share this with you...

Come on, you know that was darn witty. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Anyway, I should probably apologize for my extended absence here lately - we'll chalk it up to weddings, work schedules, and midterms. My bad.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a nifty little routine that claims to burn as many calories as a 30-40 minute run. Personally, I think that's probably stretching it a little bit, but it's an intense four minutes nevertheless. This four-minute drill is designed to raise your heart rate, exhaust your lungs, and force your metabolism into overdrive. The day-long effect of this intensity is an elevated metabolism for 12-24 hours. Pretty neat, huh?

Grab your Nike kicks, your water bottle, and your asthma inhaler. And come on, gang - it's literally 4 minutes long. Step away from the computer and give it a shot.

FOUR MINUTES TO FAILURE

• Equipment: None 
• Duration: 4 minutes
• Exercises: 4
• Method: The drill works on a "20 seconds on, 10 seconds off" basis. You will do the first exercise for 20 seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds. At the end of that rest period, you'll immediately begin the second exercise, which you'll do for another 20 seconds. And so on, so forth, until you've gone through each of the 4 exercises twice. That's it. Four minutes, and you're done. 

 

Burpees (to :20)

Rest (to :30)

Mountain Climbers (to :50)

Rest (to 1:00)

High Knees (to 1:20)

Rest (to 1:30)

Jumping Jacks (to 1:50)

Rest (to 2:00)

Burpees (to 2:20)

Rest (to 2:30)

Mountain Climbers (to 2:50)

Rest (to 3:00)

High Knees (to 3:20)

Rest (to 3:30)

Jumping Jacks (to 3:50)

Rest (to 4:00)

Faint. Just kidding...you made it! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my friends!
(By the way, if you want to know why we celebrate the life of St. Patrick, click here.)