Tabata: Timing is Everything

Keywords: Tabata, Athletic Training, Intervals

The Story: The Tabata interval was discovered by Japanese exercise physiologist, Dr. Izumi Tabata. It is a set of 8 continuous intervals of 20 seconds of high intensity work (commonly a weighted squat exercise) followed by 10 seconds rest. What is special about this interval, is that it taxes the anaerobic and aerobic systems in such a way that both are improved substantially on a regiment of these intervals. After 6 weeks on this program, gains of 14% in VO2 max and 28% in anaerobic capacity were said to be noted by Tabata. These types of gains are not paralleled in the longer-effort paradigms. A program consisting of moderate aerobic effort for 60 minutes, 5 days a week may result in about a 10% gain in VO2 max after 6 weeks, and likely nothing in the anaerobic department. If you do the math, the Tabata comes out to 4 minutes of working out (without the warm-up and cool-down). The secret ingredient of Tabata's interval sequence? The 10 second rest. Ummm...why didn't anyone think of this before?

Additional Reading:
http://www.achieve-fitness.com/ideal.htm
http://www.ms-se.com/pt/re/msse/abstract.00005768-199703000-00015.htm

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