TheFinalSprint.com - Track & Field, Marathons, Racing News, Training Advice, Elite Athlete Blogs, Interviews, Podcasts, Videos and More! - TheFinalSprint.com is the Premier Destination for Track & Field, Marathon, Cross Country, Olympic and Road Racing Enthusiasts.
Results in less than 5 minutes: The Tabata Method
Posted July 13th, 2007 at 7:19 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise
The following article is written by HesFit.com writer Stephen Antel.
It looks easy on paper: 20 seconds of exercise, followed by 10 seconds rest, for 4 minutes total. A workout that claims to melt fat, increase your aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, can be done with little or no equipment, and can be done in less than 5 minutes? It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, such a ‘program’ does exist, and it’s called the Tabata method.
The Tabata method is named after Dr. Izumi Tabata. Dr. Tabata conducted several studies to determine the effectiveness of high intensity interval training on sports conditioning. He compared standard HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) using 30 seconds of intense exercise with 2 minutes rest to a protocol that had shorter bouts of exercise and rest periods with 20 seconds of intense exercise with 10 seconds rest. What his findings revealed was that standard HIIT, while effective at increasing aerobic capacity (sessions of exercise over 3 minutes), did little to increase anaerobic capacity (intense exercise of less than 3 minutes). The Tabata method, as it was later named, showed marked increases in both aerobic and anaerobic capacities.
Read the rest at our partner site: HesFit.com
Who was America's most-valuable male runner in 2008?
Recent Comments
Page 2 Articles
The Final Sprint
On January 8, 2009
Jimmy said:
Hey nick, im a big fan.. do you do any cross training? and why did you decide to run d3 in college...