Why TABATA is the ultimate HIIT workout
Posted by Paul Whalland on
How great would it be if i told you that 20 minutes of TABATA would give you better cardio fitness as well as tone, strengthen and shape your body, better than 1 hour on the treadmill, or pointless ,repetitive drawn out run of the mill training that most of us have been told you must do to achieve great results. Well that’s exactly what i am saying. In a TABATA workout, each round lasts 4 minutes. Each 4 minute round consists of 8 x 20 second rapid performing exercises.
After each 20 second segment is completed, the participant then takes a very brief 10 second rest. In most TABATA sessions, the exercises that are performed, are generally body weight exercises, but performed at a faster rate. Theses exercises may include, PUSH UPS, HIGH KNEES, BURPEES, JUMPING ROPE, SQUATS, BOX JUMPS, BATTLE ROPE, JUMPING JACKS, MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS, just to name a few.
Trust me, each TABATA circuit may consist of only 4 minutes, but let me tell you, if performed at maximum personal effort. It will be the longest 4 minutes of your life.
REMEMBER TO WARM UP PROPERLY FIRST WITH DYNAMIC EXERCISES. These could be arm circles. walking lunges, jumping jacks, squats, leg swings, side shuffles, walking knee hugs. APPROX 5 minutes with 30 seconds per exercise until 5 minutes is up. A little more if needed.
Here are 4 different exercises incorporated in the TABATA circuit below. Each one being performed 2 times over the circuit. However if you really only wanted to perform 1 or 2 exercises, then you can do that as well. This might be burpees and battle rope, and by doing this, each exercise would be performed 4 times.
JUMPING JACKS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
HIGH KNEES x 20 seconds
10 second rest
BOX JUMPS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
JUMPING JACKS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
HIGH KNEES x 20 seconds
10 second rest
BOX JUMPS x 20 seconds
10 second rest
NOTE:
Rest longer between each exercise or circuit if needed based on your own individual fitness levels.
COOL DOWN AND STRETCH PROPERLY AFTER YOUR TABATA SESSION WITH.
Very light jogging on the spot, standing quad stretch, lunging half stretch, core abdominal stretch, child’s pose, single knee to chest stretch, bent knee cross- body stretch, seated pigeon. piriformis stretch. These are a suggested guide only, you may have your own cool down routine and stretches that suit you. It's a personal choice. Between 5 to 10 minutes is a good guide.
If you are doing a stretching routine with several different types of stretches, 30 seconds for each one is a good guide. And please avoid any stretches that cause sharp or sudden pain. A cool down should be a healthy and enjoyable way to end a work out.
A 20 MINUTE TABATA SESSION WOULD CONSIST 4 X 4 MINUTE ROUNDS
WITH A 1 MINUTE REST AFTER EACH ROUND.
However, depending on the fitness level of the participant, a longer rest may be required between circuits, and also the number of circuits can be reduced or added. Also again depending on the level of fitness of the participant, the exercise time of 20 seconds can be swapped for 10 seconds exercise time, and the rest time can be 20 seconds, or longer if needed.
TABATA was invented by Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese physician and researcher. His study was based on a training principal using a high intensity exercise volume totalling 20 seconds followed by a brief 10 second rest. He came up with this short but high intensity exercise format for the Japanese olympic ski team. Dr Tabata had two control groups over a six week period. Group one completed one hour of moderate - intensity exercise five times per week over the six week test period. Group two did shorter but higher intensity exercise using the TABATA format also over the same 6 week test period. In total, group one performed a total of 1800 minutes or 30 hours of total exercise time. and group two performed a total of 120 minutes exercise time, or two hours.
And would you believe that the TABATA groups aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels increased by 28%, pretty impressive hey!! TABATA has been proven to increase cardiovascular fitness, and it can also be implemented into weight training as well, and vastly improve overall core strength.
TABATA may not suit everyone, being it is a very intense version of cardio training but it has been proven to raise your metabolism, increase overall fitness and strength. The results that can be achieved from this way of training in such a time friendly format, over longer duration moderate intensity, and yes even longer unnecessary HIIT training. The TABATA form of training will be very appealing to those that want to get the most effective benefits that shorter intense training has been proven to do. This just does not mean your average person, but athletes as well.
THE SKIES THE LIMIT WITH TABATA.
Apart from using your body weight for TABATA, you can also implement battle ropes, slam balls, kettle bells, dumbbells and barbells into your TABATA regime. But just like any exercise that you may have not performed, please go into it with a careful and sensible approach, make sure you warm up properly before and cool down after, and above all, do not perform it with any underlying or fresh injuries or medical conditions. If you are all good, and you want an absolute SMASH IT workout, then TABATA is like no other workout you will likely to have, and the best thing about it, it won’t take up very much time, how good is that. I personally hope you learned a lot out of this blog, and it gives you a better understanding on the overall fitness and conditioning benefits you can get from TABATA.