What Is Tabata Training?

Many of us fail to exercise because we lead busy lives, but the more fit you are, the more you can do. Richard Branson said that the greatest thing about life, and one of the things all entrepreneurs should take care of is their health.

Tabata training is a minimum effective dose exercise protocol. It has been proven that 1 minute of all-out exercise may have benefits of 45 minutes of moderate exertion according to an article from the New York Times.

You can get incredible results in a short amount of time when you do it right. Tabata exercises take a total of 4 minutes of high intensity exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds, then do it again 8 times. With just 4 minutes of Tabata exercise you make a remarkable change in your body.

Tabata has high fitness and weight loss benefits which saves a lot of time for people with busy lives who wouldn’t otherwise engage in an exercise or weight loss program.

Where Did Tabata Originate? 

The name Tabata comes from Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese physician and researcher who invented the training protocol. He conducted a study using an interval-based training model. His intention was to see if athletes would benefit from a 20/10 sessoin repeated 8 times. 20/10 means 20 seconds of all out exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. This adds up to 4 minutes total.

Dr. Tabata took 2 groups and put them on an exercise program for 6 weeks. The control group did 1 hour of moderate-intensity exercise 5 times per week. The other group did the high-intensity Tabata-style training. The control group did a total of 1,800 minutes of training while the Tabata group did 120 minutes over a 6 week period.

The Tabata group improved both its aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. The anaerobic fitness level increased 28%. 

Benefits of Tabata Training

Whatever exercises you choose to use, Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate immediately. Because you are performing these exercises at a very high-intensity, your body will have to work much harder to keep it up. This will cause your heart to pump fast and your metabolism to jump, which you want if you are planning on losing fat. Your metabolism will stay at that high not only during the workout, but after the workout as well. This means that your body will be burning fat for hours after. 

One of the greatest benefits of anaerobic training is that your body keeps burning fat for 24 hours after your workout. As a weight loss tactic, Tabata is a great tool.

Low Impact Lower Body and Core Tabata Workout

This routine was built to limit the amount of impact your body has to go through by taking out any jumping, bouncing or other motions that put excessive pressure on any specific joint.

This routine consists of 4 separate sections that make up a complete well rounded workout that you can do in 32 minutes. The first section is a 5 minute warm up that targets all of the muscles that are going to be used. The 2nd section focuses on the lower body and consists of 5 groups of 2 exercises. The 3rd section is a workout focused on the “core” muscles. The last section is a cool down and stretch that helps the body cool down slowly while circulating the blood to your extremities to fully flush out any left over byproducts from exercise.