Thread: Tabata Training

Somebody at work just told me about this - anybody ever tried it?

Tabata Training

swing and a miss?



You might want to consider asking us in the training section, but yea, it's fairly awesome. Especially for great cardio gains with sprinting in minimal time, much like many forms of HIIT.

The deal with tabatas is, dont just be jumping in thinking, "DAMN, 4 minute workout?? great gains?? Sign me up!"

You need to be very fit to even consider doing them, and it might not hurt to check with a doctor who knows you well either to get his thoughts. Any heart condition, or having a go without a good base of fitness is a recipe for disaster.

Also, I am not a huge fan of them translating into plyometrics. While you can build decent body weight work based on their principles, I think it is best left to things like sprinting, biking, rowing etc. In short, cardio.

Originally Posted by Youngblood

swing and a miss?



You might want to consider asking us in the training section, but yea, it's fairly awesome. Especially for great cardio gains with sprinting in minimal time, much like many forms of HIIT.

The deal with tabatas is, dont just be jumping in thinking, "DAMN, 4 minute workout?? great gains?? Sign me up!"

You need to be very fit to even consider doing them, and it might not hurt to check with a doctor who knows you well either to get his thoughts. Any heart condition, or having a go without a good base of fitness is a recipe for disaster.

Also, I am not a huge fan of them translating into plyometrics. While you can build decent body weight work based on their principles, I think it is best left to things like sprinting, biking, rowing etc. In short, cardio.

Nice one kidda

P.S I have moved this into the training section

It sounds really interesting. But despite what the website and Youngblood say i'm still considering just jumping straight in. Whats the worst that could happen??

Youngblood, do you know if you just repeat the same exercise for each set?

Originally Posted by ryanman

It sounds really interesting. But despite what the website and Youngblood say i'm still considering just jumping straight in. Whats the worst that could happen??

Youngblood, do you know if you just repeat the same exercise for each set?

Some recommend that Ryan, but I seriously don't agree when considering to for things like body weight. Why is you will reach fail far too often. This is not only counter productive, but can put you at high risk of strains and injuries. So if you are going to do things like that, then you want to rotate it with various exercises that target different areas of the body. But then you are doing a type of variation of a tabata and it isn't really one any more. But still getting the benefit of low rest period.

it basically becomes HIIT, with less rest time, less overall work, but highest possible intensity. I've built mine to mimic 3-4 min rounds and do them occasionally.

Originally Posted by ryanman

It sounds really interesting. But despite what the website and Youngblood say i'm still considering just jumping straight in. Whats the worst that could happen??

Youngblood, do you know if you just repeat the same exercise for each set?

Does sound interesting doesn't it!

My exercise is just repetitious at the moment and the thought of continuing the fat burning process for 48-72 hours after stopping the exercise, sounds very appealing

Originally Posted by ryanman

Whats the worst that could happen??

Assuming who ever jumps in isn't ready for it.

Best case scenario is that you're not fit enough to cope with the training load do the work out properly and ends up giving up and not really getting any benefit from their session.

Failing that you end up over training, seeing catabolic effects and probably end up having to take a few days out to recover whilst your muscles atrophy

Absolute worse case is that you severely overwork and injure the muscle.

That being said the majority of trained people will be O.K. but there's nothing wrong with being measured!

Originally Posted by AdamGB

Originally Posted by ryanman

Whats the worst that could happen??

Assuming who ever jumps in isn't ready for it.

Best case scenario is that you're not fit enough to cope with the training load do the work out properly and ends up giving up and not really getting any benefit from their session.

Failing that you end up over training, seeing catabolic effects and probably end up having to take a few days out to recover whilst your muscles atrophy

Absolute worse case is that you severely overwork and injure the muscle.

That being said the majority of trained people will be O.K. but there's nothing wrong with being measured!

Ok, so no chance of a massive heart attack then? Phew.

I'm definately going to give it some thought. It will be hard to know how difficult to set the workout. It would need to be tough obviously but also manageable so the routine can be completed.

Dont overshock the system untrained for the course. It might give you a bigger shock than expected.

Originally Posted by Scrap

Dont overshock the system untrained for the course. It might give you a bigger shock than expected.

Is Tabata something you would recommend Scrap?
I'm reasonably fit but not an athlete. I do 3 mile runs a few times a week, usually takes me about 19 - 20 mins. And I do some weights.

My routine is dull though. General Workout with the weights followed by either cycling, hitting bag, or running or two of the three. Just boring routine stuff. I'd like to give something else a go. I've considered plyometrics, kettle bells and a few other things. But I'm not sure whats hype and whats actually good.

Originally Posted by ryanman

Originally Posted by Scrap

Dont overshock the system untrained for the course. It might give you a bigger shock than expected.

Is Tabata something you would recommend Scrap?
I'm reasonably fit but not an athlete. I do 3 mile runs a few times a week, usually takes me about 19 - 20 mins. And I do some weights.

My routine is dull though. General Workout with the weights followed by either cycling, hitting bag, or running or two of the three. Just boring routine stuff. I'd like to give something else a go. I've considered plyometrics, kettle bells and a few other things. But I'm not sure whats hype and whats actually good.

If you do 3 miles in 19 minutes you are more than reasonably fit fella

Ryanman, thats what I hear all the time, its boring. Plus thats from sportsmen earning more in a week than people earn in a year, its not just you . Theres Hours of stuff can be done, in the process of doing a video, at the moment its 9 hours long when its finished I havent a clue how long it will be its all origanal stuff, working with the nueromuscular system. Things are out there if you look.

Originally Posted by BIG H

Originally Posted by ryanman

Originally Posted by Scrap

Dont overshock the system untrained for the course. It might give you a bigger shock than expected.

Is Tabata something you would recommend Scrap?
I'm reasonably fit but not an athlete. I do 3 mile runs a few times a week, usually takes me about 19 - 20 mins. And I do some weights.

My routine is dull though. General Workout with the weights followed by either cycling, hitting bag, or running or two of the three. Just boring routine stuff. I'd like to give something else a go. I've considered plyometrics, kettle bells and a few other things. But I'm not sure whats hype and whats actually good.

If you do 3 miles in 19 minutes you are more than reasonably fit fella

The thing is though I can do 3 miles in a good time, but I absolutely die after that. I'm not sure I could even do 5 miles at all. I'm a sprinter by nature - its took me quite a while to get remotely good at distance running. Its odd really, I could never do a marathon I don't think yet I see the likes of Lorraine Kelly doing them no problem! Different horses for different courses I guess.

To be fair mate when you see these celebs 'running' marathons they are more often than not walking for about 85% of the time and doing a half arsed jog the other 15

Originally Posted by ryanman

The thing is though I can do 3 miles in a good time, but I absolutely die after that. I'm not sure I could even do 5 miles at all. I'm a sprinter by nature - its took me quite a while to get remotely good at distance running. Its odd really, I could never do a marathon I don't think yet I see the likes of Lorraine Kelly doing them no problem! Different horses for different courses I guess.

I'm the same mate, I was always a good sprinter in school & really struggled initially when translating to longer distances. Now though I do 5 miles about 2-3 times a week. What I think you're probably doing, which is a problem I always had & still do sometimes which is running too fast initially. This causes you to gas out too quickly.

What I'd recommend is planning a route of about 4 miles, and if you feel tired slow to a walk, but by no means actually stop. Keep an attitude of perpetual motion. I'd also recommend making sure that you know how long the exact route you're doing is. Most of us tend to overestimate how far we're running, so if you drive check it on a milometer.

In regards to Tabata Training, I'd say it's an excellent conditioning tool but you really do need to be very fit. I keep myself pretty well conditioned, and having been off any fitness work for about two and a half weeks because of a mammoth flu, I picked it up today after a week of cardio work with 5 miles running. I made it to my 6th round of sprints before I had to stop because it was becoming too much.

Like YB, I wouldn't recommend it for plyometrics particularly, due to the way the body is, it will be difficult to do something like press-ups repeatedly in that way without reaching fail. It's not really built for a single set of plyo exercises. However, there are some things you can do with weights that work it quite well.

It also can work as an additional abs workout, but in my opinion there's better abs workouts that can be done. I'd suggest it as decent when following up a run or something.