Tabata Training

There are various workouts out there (circuit) that may be difficult to understand. Sometimes you have to go to one side of a gym, workout there, then go to the next. Fortunately enough, Tabata is a basic form of workout and can be easy to follow. I’ll list the steps to take in using Tabata training.

Research

If you do not know what Tabata is, I’ll explain a little bit about it. Tabata was founded in Japan by Izumi Tabata. He conducted tests on two groups of athletes; comparing moderate high intensity training with high intensity interval training.

The results were that the athletes training in high intensity interval training improved their aerobic systems as well as their anaerobic system. The athletes who did the moderate high intensity training only improved their aerobic system and had little to no increase in their anaerobic system.

Read “What is Tabata Training” to find out more.

Basic Tools To have

First, make sure you have some sort of journal or list saying what exercises you used for your Tabata and how heavy the weight was that you used (if you’re doing exercises that require weights). It is recommended to have a journal so that you can see if you are getting stronger.

Second, make sure to have a timer with you. If you are exercising in doors and are near a computer, you can use this timer. If you are outside, you can download a Tabata app or a mp3 Tabata. Also be sure to have proper attire as well and have a water bottle and towel with you to refresh you between rounds.

Designing Your Tabata

Next, you want to begin to ask yourself what you want to achieve. Do you want to lose fat? Do you want to improve your endurance? Do you want to improve your muscle endurance? Do you want to gain size and strength at the same time improving your cardio? All these can help formulate what exercises to include. This is a sample of a simple Tabata session:

• Pushups for intervals 1 and 3
• Body weight Squats for intervals 2 and 4
• Medicine ball slams for intervals 5 and 7
• Sprinting or jumping rope for intervals 6 and 8

Here are some videos showing different exercises for a Tabata Session:

Using The Tabata

Now that you designed your own Tabata and know what exercises to use, you are ready to begin. Make sure everything is ready and that you have all the necessary tools. Make sure to warm up properly before and stretch or else you’ll pull a muscle during the session.

If you feel that you are getting tired and cannot go all out during 1 of the intervals, you can either rest for that session and go all out in the next; or you can go at a moderate intensity. However, if you find that you are doing this too often, redesign the exercises in your Tabata so that you can go through all the intervals at your max.

Finally, after you’re done the Tabata training, do a cool down (this can be a light jog around the track or light skipping and biking) and stretch. Make sure that your body gets proper rest and nutrition if you want to see the results you want.

Tabata (as explained in the “What is Tabata Training”) is a form of high intensity interval training. It is a method that is much more beneficial than regular moderate intensity training (jogging, biking, skipping, and so forth) and much more fun.

Now that you know about the Tabata Training method, the next time is how to use it. I’ll explain in detail on how you can use it effectively so you’ll become much more fit (cardio wise and lean muscle mass).

Before You Use Tabata

Like many other exercises and forms of workouts; you must be committed and determined to put forth all your energy in the exercise. The Tabata Training Method is an advanced form of exercise and it requires you to be fit as well as mentally strong. The method is designed so that it lasts 4 minutes long, however within those 4 minutes you have to go through 8 intervals. Each lasting 20 seconds at a very high intensity.

Using The Tabata Training Method

Using Tabata is quite simple and straight forward. However you must be prepared for the session. The first thing you need to do is to pick the exercises you wish to include in your Tabata training. Then, you need the right equipment for the exercises. After, you have to decide which interval is for what exercise (if you have more than one exercise in your training). For example you could have one interval for one exercise and another interval for the other exercise. This is a sample Tabata training plan:

• Barbell Squats (intervals 1,3)
• Pushups (intervals 2,5)
• Chin ups (intervals 4,6)
• Sprinting in place (intervals 7,8)
• Equipment needed: Barbell with weights, surface mat for pushups and a chin up bar

Tabata Training lasts 4 minutes and has 8 intervals in total lasting 20 seconds. Within those 20 seconds however, you are going all out. Make sure you use a weight where you can successfully go all out for all 8 intervals. Also make sure the exercises aren’t too hard and aren’t too easy. The exercises should hard enough so it makes you sweat and breath during a interval, however easy enough so you can last the whole Tabata session.

Using The Tabata Training Method Effectively

As mentioned above, you must be prepared and have chosen the correct exercises so you can see improvements in your fitness. However, what I didn’t mention was that you must have proper nutrition and rest if you want Tabata to work.

Due to Tabata being a high intensity interval training form of exercise, it is very taxing to the body. In other words you will definitely feel the soreness in your muscles the next day. Make sure you rest the following day so your body can recover.

Also make sure you eat before the Tabata workout and after. Another point is to warm up and stretch before the workout and have a cool down and stretch after the workout. The last thing you want is to pull a muscle during the Tabata Training cycle and having to stop the timer.

To end it, here are some videos of different Tabata sessions. You might even want to consider using them.

At one point or another, you have probably went jogging and if you’re anything like most people I know, it’s boring. All you do is run from one area to another and run back at a steady, most of the time slow pace. Most of the time jogging sessions last an hour to 2 hours. However, Tabata training is completely different. I’ll give you three reasons why you should use the Tabata Training Method instead of long distance running and other long hours of cardio training.

1. Time

One of the down sizes of doing long distance running is that it takes time to get to the area where you are jogging to and back; and time for your heart rate and metabolism to shoot up. Because it takes time, you’ll have to work longer and harder in order to see the results (losing fat and/or improving cardio). However, with Tabata, you can gain more results in less time.

If you don’t know already, Tabata is a four minute session. Each Tabata has 8 intervals  of which you exercise at a very high intensity for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, you have 10 seconds to rest.  Tabata is a form of high intensity training and one of the benefits of high intensity training is that it can boost your metabolism and heart rate up in a matter of seconds. Long distance running requires anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 in order to get your heart rate up. Not only that but you have to maintain that heart rate for the rest of the jog to get your body to burn fat.

2. Losing Fat

I’m sure you’ve encountered various people saying that the only way to lose fat is to jog. The truth is, jogging is only one of the ways to lose fat (and the slowest). As mentioned above, jogging takes time for your metabolism and heart rate to rise. So in order to burn fat while jogging, you have to wait a bit until your body can get into the fat burning zone.

Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate up in no time. Because you are performing these exercises at a very high intensity, your body will have to work much harder to keep up. This will cause your heart to pump faster and your metabolism to rise; which you want if you are planning on losing fat. Your metabolism will stay at a high not only during the workout, but after the workout as well. This means that your body will be burning fat even when you aren’t doing anything.

3 Aerobic and Anaerobic Benifits

Izumi Tabata was the founder and creator of Tabata. He conducted a test which tested two groups of athletes. The first group was ordered to train in moderate intensity exercises (this includes jogging, skipping, swimming, cycling and so forth) at 70% lasting an hour for each training day for five days a week for a total of six weeks. The result from this group was that their aerobic system improved, however their anaerobic system improved little to none.

The second group was ordered to train 4 days a week for a total of 6 weeks at a high intensity (170%) each training day lasting 4 minutes. The results of this training group was that they increased their aerobic system much more than the other group and that they had a 28% increase.

This means that the group performing high intensity training (Tabata) had much more improvements than the group performing moderate intensity.

Basically, you can get much more done in less time in Tabata training than you can in long distance running. You can also put any exercise you want in Tabata to make it much more fun. These are some examples of what you could do within a Tabata training session.

When comparing Tabata to other cardiovascular training, Tabata really stands out. The reason is because Tabata is the shortest of them all; but is the most effective when it comes to burning fat and improving cardio. However, it is good to know what the pros and cons are to using Tabata. Below I will explain the benefits and non-benefits of using Tabata.

What are the Pros?

From the results of the test that Izumi Tabata did, it has been proven that high intensity interval training (specifically Tabata) increases both the aerobic and anaerobic system of anybody using it. Moderate high intensity training (jogging, biking, swimming, and so forth) increased the aerobic system (not as much as Tabata did) and little to no increase in the anaerobic system.

Basically, if you use Tabata, you will be improving your aerobic system much more than traditional cardio training and you’ll be improving your anaerobic system at the same time.

Other than the short time and anaerobic increase, using Tabata will also fire up the metabolism during the workout and have an after effect after the workout (meaning even after you are done your Tabata workout, you’ll still be burning calories). Having high metabolism will help you burn fat and Tabata is a really good fat burning type of exercise.

As well, Tabata also improves mental toughness (or will power) because of the high intensity of it. At first when you do Tabata training, you might be having the thoughts of quiting.

However, if you pull through the exercise, you’ll be gaining physical benefits as well as mental benefits. Because let’s face it, doing a exercise for 20 seconds at 170% might seem short and easy, but when you do it, those 20 seconds are actually longest 20 seconds of your life (when you’re in session 4 or 5 you’ll understand what I mean).

What are the Cons?

Well, this section will be short because there are very few cons when using the Tabata. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t.

Because of the high intensity Tabata requires you to do, it could be dangerous when you perform this exercise when you are prone to strokes and heart attacks. If you know that you have high blood pressure or have had a history of strokes and heart attacks, consult with your doctor first to see if you are physically capable of performing the Tabata exercise.

The other danger about Tabata is that if you’re not careful and are using weights when doing Tabata, depending on the exercise, you could hurt yourself. For example if you are benching real quickly when using Tabata, there’s a chance the bar might slip from your hands.

So should I use Tabata?

Depends, how bad do you want to see results? If you really want to lose weight or improve your cardio, use Tabata. The pros outweigh the cons and it’s a short, four minute workout session. However, if you aren’t physically healthy to perform Tabata, speak with your doctor to finding an alternative way to exercise for health.

There are many different forms of workouts out there and each workout will give you a different result. Some increase muscle mass, some increase strength, others help you lose weight and so forth.

Cardiovascular (cardio for short) exercises are a popular brand of exercise designed to improve endurance and stimulate fat loss. Cardio exercises can be anything from long distance running, skipping, biking or even power walking. All of these usually fall under the category of moderate intensity training because they tend to last anywhere from a half hour to more than an hour going at the same pace.

“Tabata” is the name of a particular type of workout program that provides similar health benefits to that of cardio workouts, but Tabata has a bit more spice. Instead of hours upon hours or exercise, Tabata can be completed in 4 minutes. Tabata falls under the category of high intensity training or high intensity interval training. Today I write to explain to you the history of Tabata and exactly what it is.

How did Tabata come about?
Tabata was founded by a Japanese scientist named Izumi Tabata and fellow colleagues at a department of physiology in Japan. Izumi and his fellow scientists decided to conduct a study to compare moderate intensity training with high intensity training.

He conducted the tests on 2 groups of athletes; 1 of the groups used the moderate intensity interval training and the other using high intensity interval training.

In group one; the athletes were training in moderate intensity workouts (70% intensity) for five days a week for a total of six weeks with each training session lasting an hour.

Group two trained in the high intensity workouts for 4 days a week for a total of 6 weeks with each session lasting 4 minutes, at 20 seconds of intense training (170% intensity) and 10 seconds of rest.

What were the results of the tests?

Group 1 had a significant increase in the aerobic system (cardiovascular system). However, the anaerobic system (muscles) gained little or no results at all.

Group 2 showed much improvement in all their athletes. Their aerobic systems increased much more than group ones, and their anaerobic systems increased by 28%.

Conclusion? Not only did high intensity interval training have more of an impact on the aerobic systems; it had an impact on the anaerobic systems as well.

So what does a basic Tabata training design look like?

Any exercise can be incorporated into the Tabata training. However the basic outline of the Tabata training method are as follows:
•     4 minutes long (whole Tabata Session)
•     20 seconds of intense training
•     10 seconds of rest
•     Total of 8 sessions or rounds

This is a online Tabata Timer if you don’t have a stop watch or timer.

These are a few examples of different types Tabata training:

To wrap it all up, Tabata is a form of high intensity interval training method that offers more health benefits than traditional cardiovascular exercise. It’s short, efficient and can fit in almost any fitness program.