Don’t have time for 45-minute workouts every day? No problem, because we know the best superfast workout that will help you burn fat and tone your muscles in 20 minutes or less.

In case you didn’t know, research has already shown that only 20 minutes of intense exercise can produce great effects in terms of increasing your strength and torching a whole bunch of calories. And everybody has the time to perform a 20-minute workout, no excuses allowed. All you need to do is choose the right exercises, and we’re here to help you with that.

When Izumi Tabata designed his Tabata Protocol for the Japanese Olympic speed skating team, he was surprised to see that his training approach had even better results than expected, so he decided to perform a study and examine the benefits of the Tabata Protocol more closely. The trial involved a group of students who performed eight 20-second all-out sprints on stationary bikes, followed by 10 seconds of rest after each sprint, so the whole circuit took just 4 minutes. After six weeks, the results showed that the students who performed the protocol for five days a week had increased their aerobic fitness by 14%, while the control group who performed 60-minute rides on stationary bikes five days a week had improved their aerobic fitness by 10% only. Even though the study was small, Tabata’s findings were extraordinary – the sprinting group actually got in better shape even though their workouts were 54 minutes shorter than the workouts of the control group! Understandably, this marked the beginning of training protocols that shifted the emphasis from workout duration to workout intensity, enabling people to get better results for a shorter period of time.

In reality, although it can improve your aerobic fitness in the long run, 4 minutes of exercise per day is not going to help you burn a ton of fat or strengthen your muscles significantly. No matter what anybody says or how intense your workout is, 4 minutes is just not enough time for any tangible results. But if you simply repeat the protocol a few times, mixing up the exercises and varying the intensity, you can get a great 20-minute workout that will help you shed excess weight fast as well as build a truly powerful body. For best results, the exercises should be performed at a high intensity for 20 seconds, followed by a 10-second break. According to the American Council on Exercise, a 20-minute Tabata protocol organized in this way helps you burn 15 calories per minute!

To help you get the body of your dreams, we’ve created a beginner’s version of the Tabata protocol with a few basic yet highly effective exercises that will blast that extra fat on your thighs and stomach in only a few weeks: bodyweight squats, jumping jacks, lunges and push-ups. Before you start performing the circuit, practice each exercise on its own to better your form and ensure optimal results.

The circuit:
Squats: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Jumping jacks: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Push-ups: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Lunges: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Squats: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Jumping jacks: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Push-ups: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds
Lunges: 20 seconds
Rest: 10 seconds

This is the basic 4-minute protocol, so repeat the circuit 4 more times for a total of 20 minutes. During each 20-second bout, perform as many reps of the exercise as you can at a fast pace.
If you find the 20-minute protocol too exhausting in the beginning, limit yourself to 2 repetitions of the circuit until you improve your fitness level. It’s also advisable to spend a few minutes warming up with dynamic stretches prior to performing the workout.

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