Tabata Protocol training is named after it's Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., who did research at Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports. The actual creator of the workout was a coach of a Japanese speed-skating team, but the protocol was refined after research by Tabata affirmed the aerobic and anaerobic benefits of the interval training. It was simple enough for the team, 20 seconds of full effort skating followed by 10 seconds of full rest repeated 6 to 7 times. The entire session is meant to last 14 minutes including 5 minutes of warm up and 5 minutes of active cool down. Tabata helped prove that just 4 minutes of this extremely intense training would promote stronger cardiovascular fitness and anaerobic performance.

For twenty seconds do as many reps of the assigned exercise as you can - then rest 10 seconds. Repeat this seven more times for a total of 8 intervals, 4 minutes total exercise.
The score is the least number of reps for any of the eight intervals.

The Inch Dumbbell has a rich, interesting history that goes back as far as weights themselves. Thomas Inch (1881-1963) of Great Britain, requested three dumbbells to be made by Appleby and Brogdens Iron Works for his traveling circus show. Mr. Inch himself was no slouch in the strength game. Once Britain's Strongest Man, he had a personal best overhead press of 356 lbs, could deadlift 560 lbs with one hand at the age of 69(!) and could easily lift the original Dumbbell at a bodyweight of only 168 lbs at the time. (Yup, he weighed less than the Dumbbell itself!)

So when Appleby and Brogdens Iron Works made his Dumbbells, because of the tremendous weight Inch wanted them to weigh, they figured the only way to keep them from bending was to make them with an extra thick handle. This is what would end up making them so popular and so difficult to lift. The three Dumbbells weighed 130, 153, and 172 pounds. The lighter two had 2" diameter handles while the heaviest (now replicated) had a handle "as thick as an old glass milk bottle". It's actual measurements were: 20" overall length, 8.5" diameter of the spheres at each end, and the handle was 7.75" in circumference, 2.47" in diameter and 4" long. (Distance between each sphere.)

Thomas once wrote an article entitled "Secret of the Unliftable Challenge Dumbbell". He discussed that over 20,000 strongmen, gymnasts, boxers, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and powerlifters had tried it for over 40 years, all without budging it off the Earth.

For many people the process of "opening" the hips can be challenging. What feels like fully extended hips isn't. What feels like an over exaggerated flinging of the hips usually is correct! Like so many things, when we're retraining our brains, what feels odd and too much turns out to be correct.

I was thinking of an image to help the students imagine what "extension" and "open" looks like and it occurred to me later in the day that frogs have awesome extension. Maybe this image will help some people, maybe it won't - but if you encounter challenges in movements, try to think of a different way of approaching it, or an image that helps you achieve what you're after.