A 4-minute workout is blowing up on Pinterest and Instagram - and you can do it anywhere

Tabata is the newest workout to take over Instagram and Pinterest pages everywhere.

Since 2015, Pinterest searches for "Tabata workouts" have more than doubled in the past year, and there are over 200,00 Instagram posts tagged #Tabata - and counting.

But what is it?

Tabata is a highly efficient, interval-based workout that is 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times.

That's it. And while a four-minute workout might sound too good to be true, the Japanese physician and researcher Dr. Izumi Tabata who invented it found the results are pretty staggering.

In a study conducted by the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, two groups of people were tested over a six-week period. The first group did one hour of moderate-intensity exercise five time a week while the second group did high-intensity Tabata training.

In total, the Tabata group did 120 minutes of exercise total while the control group did a whopping 1,800 minutes of exercise. The results showed the Tabata group had a greater increase in their cardiovascular system as well as their anaerobic system. 

Keep reading to find out how to do Tabata.