Peoples ideas on tabata workout

You need a decent amount of fitness to be able to do them well in the first place, and if you do more than one cycle (8x20secs), it's not really HIIT any more, just another form of interval training.
They're good exercise and get you working at a good level of intesity, but they obviously need to go alongside a calorie deficit to be useful for weight loss.

Tabata was a protocol for improving VO2Max in speed skaters (irony is Tabata was the assistant of the guy who invented it...)

If you are looking to improve your VO2max and can do an exercise with good enough form that you can achieve the desired intensity, then go for it.

If you want to lose weight, sustain a moderate calorie deficit and get adequate protein.

999tigger wrote: »

Iron_Feline wrote: »

Calorie deficit for weight loss
Exercise for health

Tabata is great for improving your fitness - but most weight loss will come from your diet.

It depends on the proportion of calorific deficit that comes from reducing consumption to those burned ftom exercise. Its easier to do the former than the latter.

Tabata is fine, but youd need to do ir properly and I wouldnt hold your breath just how many calories it will burn. Before you start doing it check with Dr or make sure you have no heart/ medical issues because it involves pishing yourself. Id be cautious about the calorie burn you think you will get, but try it and see. As pointed out above its useful for improving VO2Max.

Also, and I can't emphasise this enough, it was designed for Olympic Level Athletes.

Most people just aren't in good enough c-v shape to warrant doing something so extreme for such a minimal effect. For an elite athlete a minimal effect is massive - might be the culmination of a year's worth of planned training and can make the difference between bronze and silver or silver and gold (or even making the podium).

For a regular guy/girl? No, it's not necessary. You'll improve your VO2Max naturally over time by engaging in a sensible and structure training programme suitable for your level of fitness and congruent with your goals. A fact many people on this site (and elsewhere) don't seem to understand is that elite-level training is effective for elite-level trainees. It most likely will not be for regular people/casual athletes....

Gonnassnap do you do pure tabata? I understand about epoc and tabata in general.

Fat loss comes from what and how much you eat.

Exercise addresses other fitness areas (strength, cardiovascular, mobility, endurance, balance, speed, agility).

Tabata is a good approach for building on cardiovascular fitness and depending on how you structure the work can address speed and agility. Also, it is very intense and shouldn’t be overdone.

gonnasnap wrote: »

https://www.t-nation.com/training/6-new-tabata-workouts-for-fast-fat-loss

It does more than increase your vo2 max. It also kicks your metabolism into high gear. This article has a good variety in it. There's also a ton of body weight tabata's you can do. It's about increasing your heart rate and not about getting a perfect score from the judges on your form.

Oh, a t-nipple article. That settles things then...

how much extra calorie burn will you get from 4 mins (including rest periods)? Probably minimal.... mostly you're doing it for conditioning, increased recovery capacity, etc.

From the above article:

"The only thing that separates a conditioning program from a fat loss program is the diet. You can improve your endurance and conditioning without going on any special diet. For fat loss, do the same workouts but fix your diet."

So basically, if you want to lose fat sort out your diet. Stuff like this is cherry-on-the-cake. I mean, do it if it makes you feel happy, but most of your results come from nailing a deficit and getting enough protein.

As to perfect form.... well, the form-police may or may not get on your a*r*s*e about it, but doing exercises sloppily for time is a great way to mess up your soft tissue.

Most people would recommend 0.8-1gm/lb of lbm. If you want to be around the right ball park you could just get in 1gm/lb of total mass.

Getting high protein and a moderate deficit (which gets slimmer the nearer you get to a low bf%) is by far the thing that's going to get you the best results.

Also, things like tabata, done with crappy form can lead to injuries that detract from sustained progressive training which will again lead to the majority of your results. Increasing your aerobic base increases your recovery time and can feed nicely into a progressive lifting routine. Tabata is not the only route to increasing your base though...

mcloud1977 wrote: »

what do people think about tabata workouts for weight loss? Good or bad?

It doesn't burn that many calories if you're doing it the way you're supposed to. It should be 4 minutes and done.
That said, Tababta was designed for increasing VO2 max so you're fitness and conditioning will improve. Also there is a slight raise in RMR if one applies the protocol long enough.

But it still comes down to calorie deficit for weight loss.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

jimmmer wrote: »

999tigger wrote: »

Iron_Feline wrote: »

Calorie deficit for weight loss
Exercise for health

Tabata is great for improving your fitness - but most weight loss will come from your diet.

It depends on the proportion of calorific deficit that comes from reducing consumption to those burned ftom exercise. Its easier to do the former than the latter.

Tabata is fine, but youd need to do ir properly and I wouldnt hold your breath just how many calories it will burn. Before you start doing it check with Dr or make sure you have no heart/ medical issues because it involves pishing yourself. Id be cautious about the calorie burn you think you will get, but try it and see. As pointed out above its useful for improving VO2Max.

Also, and I can't emphasise this enough, it was designed for Olympic Level Athletes.

Most people just aren't in good enough c-v shape to warrant doing something so extreme for such a minimal effect. For an elite athlete a minimal effect is massive - might be the culmination of a year's worth of planned training and can make the difference between bronze and silver or silver and gold (or even making the podium).

For a regular guy/girl? No, it's not necessary. You'll improve your VO2Max naturally over time by engaging in a sensible and structure training programme suitable for your level of fitness and congruent with your goals. A fact many people on this site (and elsewhere) don't seem to understand is that elite-level training is effective for elite-level trainees. It most likely will not be for regular people/casual athletes....

So much this. The fitness industry is very good at taking a successful program and hybriding it to something that the industry can make money off of. A good example is functional training.
Functional training was specifically for rehab. The fitness industry started applying it to programs in gyms and now you see Bosu balls, stability balls, etc. everywhere now. Not that it can't help one with fitness and strength, but many times exercises being taught aren't applicable to that client. For instance some can't do a squat on a flipped over Bosu ball without shaking like a leaf. But for those who can, how does it apply to your everyday life or hobby that you do? If one has to use balance (skate boarding, skiing, gymnastics, dance) then yes, but if someone doesn't do those and is just doing exercise to be just physically active, there's no much need to subject them to it unless they want to do it.
Point is, don't always believe all the hype from the fitness industry when it comes to "new" exercise strategies.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition