Aight Stop …….Tabata Time.

Tabata-type workouts are becoming more popular by the day, and with god reason. They suck to do, but get you incredibly fit really fast. For those who aren’t aware of what this is, it’s a system of training based on research done by a Japanese exercise physiologist named Dr. Izumi Tabata while working with the Japanese speed skating team, in which he compared repeated bouts of high intensity exercise (as high as 170% VO2 max, or ass-rippingly intense sprinting) for 20 seconds duration followed immediately by 10 seconds of passive recovery, to a 30 second bout of earth-shakingly stupid intense work (200% VO2 max work) followed by 2 minutes rest between bouts for repeated measures. He found that the first protocol taxed both the aerobic system and anaerobic system sufficiently to produce benefits greater than the second, and showed that essentially rest periods were for pussies. You can read the research here.

Since this research came out in 1996, everyone and their dog has jumped on the bandwagon. The problem is, people tend to make them out to be what they want and distort the science to anything done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest, and use “Tabata” as a catch-all term. Now we have trainers endorsing Tabata sprints (cool), Tabata speed squats squats (huh?), Tabata Abs (Seriously??), Microsoft Tabata XP (it works for 20 seconds, then freezes for at least 10 seconds), Donkey Kong: Tabata Adventures (Mario rescues the Princess while Donkey Kong hurls barrels of anaerobics at him), to name a few.

Since then a lot of fitness professionals have glommed on to the term, claiming it provides superior fat burning compared to other programs (it doesn’t. No such research exists yet), and design their own protocols using everything from dumbbell flyes to front squats and anything in between to provoke a Tabata like response. The downside is, most of these protocols jump the shark in comparison to the actual protocol.

This is what a Tabata workout should look like.

…As well as this, but listen with the sound off.

You should barely be able to stand for the first 10 minutes after these workouts, and have difficulty walking up and down stairs for the next day or two. The initial protocol called for very elite anaerobic-endurance trained athletes to perform 4 workouts per week (a total time of 80 minutes, after warmups), which would vaporize most humans.

To properly do a Tabata-style workout, you’re going to need some math skillz. First, figure out how fast you can run on a treadmill or how many watts you can push out on a bike for at least three minutes straight. We’ll call this your VO2 max speed. Let’s say you can run at 8.0 mph without falling off. Using the ACSM metabolic equations for predicting VO2 max, this works out to 46.38 mL per kilogram body mass per minute, which isn’t too shabby. Then, times the VO2 by 170% (in this case, 78.846 mL/kg/min), and work at a speed that corresponds to it. In this case, the speed would be 14.7mph. If you wanted a speed that wouldn’t have you do a face plant the first time you stepped on the treadmill, you could use an incline of 5.0%, and a speed of 12.0 mph.Run like this for 20 seconds, step to the side for 10 seconds while trying not to puke up your kidney, and do it again for 7 repeats.

This isn’t something that will be taught in a class setting.

On top of that, you should also be performing some steady state aerobic work at 70% VO2 max, which is part of the protocol, on 2 other days per week for a completely different workout than your bosu burpee bootcamp Tabata-style workouts.