The Tabata Method and Workouts

The Tabata Method/Protocol is said to have been pionereed by Dr. Izumi Tabata, although Dr. Tabata has actually credited Olympic speed skating coach Irisawa Koichi with developing the technique. Regardless, Dr. Tabata ran a study in 1996 in which he had one group do aerobic training and one group do exhaustive intermittent training.

"The exhaustive intermittent training consisted of seven to eight sets of 20-s exercise at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max with a 10-s rest between each bout. After the training period, VO2max increased by 7 ml.kg-1.min-1, while the anaerobic capacity increased by 28%."

The Tabata Method itself is pretty simple and can be great for conditioning work. It is a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT) where you do 8 total sets of 20 seconds of high intensity work, with 10 seconds of rest. The workout lasts a total of 4 minutes. You can use exercises such as sprints, squats, sled pushes, battle ropes, bike, etc for your high-intensity work. As with all high-intensity methods, start slow and work your way up. While 4 minutes of exercise may not sound like much, if done at a high level of intensity it can be an extremely taxing workout!

The Tabata Method is intended to help you get results quickly with both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Give it a try some time and see how it works for you!

Link to the original study is here - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8897392/