Tabatas

I discovered the Tabata Interval a couple of years ago... and it's a GREAT way to burn calories, lose a little fat, gain a little muscle and work up a sweat!

Basically, Izuma Tabata and some colleagues at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports over in Japan tested all sorts of athletes on treadmills and came up with a paper entitled "Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max".

Um. Right. What does THAT mean?

Moderate-intensity endurance means that we're not running 26 mile marathons. They tested for shorter runs.

High-intensity means that when they were running, they were sprinting!

"Anaerobic capacity and VO2max" means that they were measuring both strength and endurance.

Putting semi-pro runners on treadmills, Tabata and company had them sprint and relax for a whole bunch of different intervals. One minute on, two minutes rest. Five seconds on, ten seconds rest. All sorts of times were experimented with.

They came up with the most efficient interval for developing BOTH strength and endurance for the average human being. It's now called the Tabata Interval - or simply "Tabatas" and refers to exercise where you work full out (sprint!) for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds... and repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes.

Believe me, 4 minutes doesn't sound like much, but there's a reason that these intervals are the best: they're killers! Last winter, I tried them on my stationary bike - wow! What a workout! There was many a day when I only managed 6 or 7 of the repetitions, becoming completely exhausted after only 3 minutes or so.

Another great thing about Tabatas is that you don't have to run. You can ride a bike, do pushups, situps, just about any exercise that you can imagine. The secret is to work full out - to sprint - with whatever exercise you're doing. And do so for 20 seconds with only a 10 second rest in between.

Watching a clock - it's truly amazing how the darn thing slowed down while I worked and sped up when I was resting. Stupid clock.

I've since written a couple of musical tabatas, fun little ditties that alternate between 20 seconds of thumping and 10 seconds of restful sounds. They're kind of fun, and we've used them in both MMA classes and kickboxing.

Our BootCampers will soon experience tabatas, too!