Thoughts on Tabata

ibcsrl19
ibcsrl19 Posts: 75 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have tried HIIT workouts in the past and was not a big fan, they seemed to take too long to complete, 30-40 minutes. Recently I did some research on Tabata workouts. 4 minutes of max intensity intervals. (20 seconds of training, 10 second recovery). Has anyone ever tried them? Did you see results?

Replies

  • holly3585
    holly3585 Posts: 282 Member
    I have never heard of these, but curious. Haha 30-40 min. seems like cake to me after a 50 min. Insanity this morning.....I am curious to see if people are having results with really short workouts- how long do you generally do these intervals for?
  • rugbygirlca
    rugbygirlca Posts: 85
    Love them. I can't comment on specific results, however, as Tabata training is just one of the workouts that I mix into my training regimen.

    P.S. It should only take 4 min/exercise. I rest one minute between set and then repeat for 4 separate exercises. Total is 19 minutes. Longest, hardest 19 minutes EVER. It's great when you only have 25 or 30 minutes to work out and want to do something challenging. Far more tiring for me than a 60 minute run.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    I do HIIT and love it. Never tried tabata... hope it goes well for you! HIIT has really changed my body, weight loss and fitness! x
  • bassmanlarry
    bassmanlarry Posts: 117 Member
    I've done both. Tabata is just an intense form of HIIT. I perform HIIT with skipping rope and Tabata will work, but you have to be giving it 100% during the 20 second interval and it will leave you wiped out.
  • chiera88
    chiera88 Posts: 155
    we did that one day in muscleworks class and i loved it. i believe it would create great results. you should try it!
  • endureandpersist
    endureandpersist Posts: 59 Member
    Yes, I've done them and the results were that they exhausted me. I'm sure they're beneficial for those that are younger or maybe very athletic, but for someone like myself, they're probably more dangerous than helpful.
  • mommamills
    mommamills Posts: 437
    ONE WORD....LOVE!!! only thing is we do this format in my boot camp class. 6 stations with 8 intervals=45 min workout. What exactly are you looking for? 30-40 min workout too long???? That's a pretty short workout for most ppl on here.
  • scott091501
    scott091501 Posts: 1,260 Member
    I love Tabata. I'll throw intervals in on a long run or on the bike trainer or as a way to finish off a workout. This isn't trading a 40 minute workout for a 4 minute workout though.
  • ltl_leah
    ltl_leah Posts: 57 Member
    I have only done Tabata a handful of times sporatically, so I can't give you any details about results. I enjoy it and it's challenging. You do the same exercise, such as pushups, for 20 seconds, pumping out as many reps as possible, rest 10 seconds, then do it all again for 8 sets in a row. Then, you get a 1-2 minute rest before starting another exercise in the same format, 20 on/10 rest for 8 sets. Hope that makes sense.

    It does get pretty intense, so it would have similar effects to HIIT. I think in order for Tabata to have value, you must do at least 5 exercises in your session, but that's just my opinion. If you did 5 exercises, it would take you about 25-30 minutes.
  • chanson104
    chanson104 Posts: 859
    I am so glad that you asked this question as I was just getting ready to attempt one. It is a little confusing because when I first looked into it I got the impression that you just work out for 4 minutes. I plan on on starting with jumping rope. Any suggestions on what else I should throw in there?

    I just finished a Bob Harper WOD that consisted of 30 overhead lunges, 20 mountain climbers, 10 side to side planks, and 30 air squats AMRAP in 7 minutes. That kind of confuses me too. Only 7 minutes? Of course I don't think that I could have gone for much longer than that. :smile: What makes 7 the magic number, and how much more exercise should be done to supplement that?
  • ibcsrl19
    ibcsrl19 Posts: 75 Member
    It is my understanding that you can do 8 reps of one exercise of 2 reps of 4 different exercises; the entire workout is 4 minutes. When you go longer 20-30 minutes then it is a more traditional form of HIIT training.

    Correct??
  • seaKind
    seaKind Posts: 136
    i use it in my intervals class sometimes... and love it. here's an example of how a traditional tabata series would go:

    warm up, of course.

    round 1 (4 min)
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    10 sec rest
    20 sec squats
    60 sec rest

    round 2 (4 min):
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    60 sec rest

    round 3 (4 min)
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    10 sec rest
    20 sec chin ups
    60 sec rest

    round 4 (4 min):
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec jump rope
    10 sec rest
    20 sec pushups
    60 sec rest

    etc...
    etc...
    as long and as hard as you can go,,,
  • treese1974
    treese1974 Posts: 2 Member
    My only experience is the Amy Dixon video, "Breathless Body" that I ordered after Fitness Magazine rated it the #1 cardio DVD workout. Holy mother of God, is it hard! Mainly because she does 8 drills of tabata sets using 8 different exercises from drill to drill (example: First one is power jacks for the 20 secs of work, 10 secs of rest 8 times. Then you do low impact cardio for 2 mins and it's on to the next 4 minute drill, total of 8 different drills). The DVD from start to finish is 56 minutes I think. I know I already said this, but Holy Mother of God, I see stars towards the end and I am a cardio junkie. There's only exercises using your own body weight, but I feel it pretty intensely the next day. Love it though--it's awesome!

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