ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Nationally renowned fitness trainer Kathy Glabicky does bicep curls at her studio in Marblehead.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
MARBLEHEAD — Personal trainer Kathy Glabicky is offering a free class next month, featuring an original 40-minute workout.
Glabicky, owner of Kathy G’s Tread Tabata, preaches “you can do anything for 20 seconds.” Her workout is a mix of treadmill cardio and floor exercises, 20 seconds of movement and 10 seconds of rest, repeated in sets of four minutes.
Her free class will be offered on July 2 at 8 a.m. at the Village School track in Marblehead. Anyone younger than 18 must have a parent’s signature or a waiver. Participants can expect to sprint around the track. They’ll also save $20, which is what Glabicky usually charges for her class.
“It’s just to support the community because they’ve been really good to me,” Glabicky said.
A certified personal trainer for 15 years with a college background in business and exercise science, Glabicky, 41, was named one of Shape Magazine’s “Top 50 Hottest Female Trainers in America” in 2014. The workout she designed three years ago was also featured in the magazine.
“It’s been amazing,” Glabicky said.
Glabicky, an avid runner who has completed three Boston Marathons, worked for two nutrition companies, while teaching and training on the side, before deciding to take on personal training as a full-time job about nine years ago. She would often put clients on the treadmill and began to wonder what would happen if she got more treadmills and people in class.
She also learned about Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese scientist that did research on athletes. One group trained at a moderate intensity level, while the other group trained at a high intensity. The moderate level group exercised for five days a week for an hour each day for six weeks, while the second group worked out four days a week for six weeks, each lasting four minutes, alternating between 20 seconds of activity and 10 seconds of rest.
Tabata concluded that a high intensity work out for four minutes has more benefits than a steady state cardio workout, Glabicky said. From that research, the tabata exercise came about, which has people workout hard for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, completing eight rounds. To develop tread tabata, she tweaked the high intensity interval training (HIIT) method to incorporate treadmills to complement the floor exercises.
“Tabata has so many amazing benefits and I’m also a runner so let’s put them together,” Glabicky said.
Glabicky said her students will typically complete eight rounds on the treadmill, or four minutes of switching off between going hard for 20 seconds and resting for 10 seconds. Students will also complete eight rounds of floor exercises, which can include weights, squats, push-ups and sit-ups, challenging the core, upper body and legs.
Four sets of eight rounds are completed for both the treadmill and floor exercises. When four-minute sets are completed, participants rest for one minute before moving on. While on the treadmill, people are challenged to sprint or walk for varying speeds and inclines.
Glabicky said a typical session burns about 500 calories, but there is considerable after-burn, which can last up to 36 hours.
“I just want to give everyone a really good work out,” Glabicky said.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
