One of the best workouts that I often recommend for training the mind and the body at the same time is the breathing ladder.  Here is article excerpt taking from dragondoor.com.

Breathing Ladders

Rob Lawrence, RKC

“Breathing ladders” are a very effective technique I’ve come up with for developing cardiovascular endurance. They are based on my observation, in karate training, that endurance is at least 50% mental. People who are out of shape tend to get in a panicked state as soon as they breathe a little hard. Not surprisingly, this rapidly makes the situation worse. Before they know it they’re huffing and puffing and their technical skills go right to hell.

In karate they would often tell us to breathe calmly, but they did not show us any way of cultivating the skill. The breathing ladder is designed to do exactly that — i.e. teach controlled breathing as a skill. The idea is to do a set, take a number of breaths (based on some ratio to the number reps you just did), then do the next set. For a simple example, let’s look at a snatch breathing ladder with a 1:1 rep/breath ratio.

1. Do one snatch left, one snatch right, take two breaths.

2. Do two snatches left, two snatches right, take four breaths.

3. Do three snatches left, three snatches right, take sixth breaths.

4. Etc. …

As you will rapidly discover, the way to survive is to slow your breath down as much as possible, to get maximum air and to increase your rest period between each set. If you panic and breathe quickly, your rest period is decreased and you are quickly dispatched to the dustbin of history. On the other hand, the only “timing” involved is your breath — and the idea is to “cheat” as much as possible by drawing out the breaths and increasing the rest periods.

Of course, you can work with any ratio of reps/breaths that you prefer. If you’re out of shape, you can work 1:2 or even 1:3; if you’re in good shape, you can do 2:1, 3:1, or whatever. The results of this training have been tremendous for me. When I teach my 45-minute kettlebell classes, I often do the workout with the students, not only doing the work, but instructing (and occasionally bellowing at) them as well, and never breathing hard. Needless to say, this tends to increase their impression that they should listen to me. I recommend this technique highly for instructors, or for anyone who needs to develop serious physical and mental endurance.

Be warned, these are much harder than they seem. Most will have the tendency to panic and lose track of their breathing.  While the article above describes the exercise with the snatch, it can be done with any type of exercise. A few others I like are: dumbell swing, deadlift, and box jumps. Remember, this type of exercise is right in tune as discussed in Why Your Still Fat!

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Is it possible to lose more fat by doing less exercise? It’s not only possible, it’s mandatory when it comes to looking good naked!

Welcome to hell, or as some call it tabata training. This is the king of energy systems training and more importantly for some, fat loss.

The tabata training protocol was created by Izumi Tabata, whom some who will learn to love and most will learn to hate, an exercise that combines high intensity work with very short rest periods.

The protocol involves 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, a total of 4 minutes of high intensity work, all which can be completed with an array of different exercises. Why is so method so effective for fat loss? Quite simple because it puts an extremely high demand on your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. This causes a massive post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) which keeps you burning fat long after exercising.

Most people train specifically on an aerobic level, meaning all the work they are engaged in can be done with an adequate supply of oxygen. Picture the people on treadmills who have the ability read magazines due to their chosen exercise intensity. Now you do burn fat while exercising at this level, but ONLY while your exercising and very little, if any, after the fact. If your are trying to burn off excess fat this, in my opinion, is a complete waste of time and very ineffective however contradictory it may sound.

Now when you begin to intensify you workout, your body can no longer keep up with refueling your muscles with oxygen and your anaerobic systems must kick in. This is where you experience heavy panting and a lactate acid buildup (burning sensation). This is also when you begin to burn carbohydrates for energy, due to the nature of intensity, which ultimately creates the level of EPOC we want for maximum fat loss.

Why don’t you see more people doing tabata? While quite frankly, it sucks and it’s hard as hell. However, as I said in While You’re Still Fat, learning to embrace this type of pain and discomfort will have you looking your best in a very short amount of time. Remember the more intense the exercise, the faster results you will see. The tabata protocol is a perfect example of this

Here is a good demonstration I found with one of my favorite exercises using tabata: Thrusters

I personally shoot for the same repetitions in each interval. This may cause you to use lighter weight, but it will really smoke your anaerobic system resulting in a greater EPOC!

Also for those of you who dare to try this, here is an online timer that I often use and recommend.

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