Let’s be real: No matter how badly you want to hit your fitness goals or see results from your workouts, spending the entire day sweating isn't feasible for most folks—pro athletes, aside. That's exactly why high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts—including tabata—are all the rage these days.
Any HIIT workout is a fast track to crushing your weekly cardio goals, compared to steady-state cardio options like running or the elliptical—but tabata, which is one of the shortest (and most intense) HIIT formats in the game, might just be the quickest way to get there.
“Tabata focuses on exerting maximum effort for a minimal amount of time,” explains trainer Semoura Villa, CPT, coach at New York City's Rumble fitness studio. These workouts are just four (yes, four!) minutes long, but they bring the HEAT. “Tabata can burn fat and help improve endurance and speed quickly,” Villa says.
Now that I've got your attention with that whole 'four-minute-workout' thing, I'm sure you've got some questions, like: What is tabata? What are the benefits of tabata that make it worth adding to your fitness routine? And how to get sweating. Here's what trainers want you to know about this ever-trendy and lightening-fast type of training. (JSYK: You're going to want to try it, stat.)
Okay, what is tabata, exactly?
In a four-minute tabata workout, you alternate between 20-second intervals of all-out (as in your 100-percent max) effort and 10-second intervals of rest for eight total rounds, explains trainer CJ Hammond, CPT.
This two-to-one work-to-rest ratio is what makes tabata famous. “It's designed to elevate your heart rate to a high anaerobic zone and give the body just a short window to recover,” Hammond says. Basically, by pushing your body into the anaerobic zone (meaning it has to work too hard to use oxygen for fuel), you burn more calories both during and after your workout.
If you want legit results in just four minutes, though, you have to really, really push yourself. “Tabata training is all about reaching the pinnacle of your anaerobic capacity,” Hammond adds. So, basically, how much work you can do at a 9 or 10 out of 10, maximum effort. That means you've got to pick exercises you know will spike your heart rate (and FAST), like sprints or burpees, for those 20-second intervals.
So, where did tabata come from?
Believe it or not, tabata has been around for a bit. The protocol was developed by a researcher named Izumi Tabata in Tokyo in 1996. He found that athletes who performed these extra-intense, four-minute interval workouts five days per week for six weeks increased their anaerobic capacity and VO2 Max (i.e. how much oxygen they could consume during exercise) more than athletes following other protocols. (They also experienced greater metabolism boosts.) And, voila, the tabata workout was born.
Are tabata and HIIT kind of the same thing, then?
You know that whole "a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't a square" thing? That's the deal with tabata and HIIT.
Consider HIIT an umbrella of all sorts of high-intensity, interval-based workouts. Often, though, “typical HIIT workouts have intervals of two to three minutes and a duration between 20 and 40 minutes of complete work,” says Villa.
That said, tabata is really just one specific type of HIIT workout. In fact, tabata is actually *higher* in intensity than traditional HIIT (imagine that!), thanks to it's super-short work intervals and even-shorter rests intervals.
So, while tabata is considered HIIT, not all HIIT is tabata. Capiche?
Is tabata beginner-friendly?
If tabata sounds a little intimidating (especially considering it only takes four minutes), well, it is. "Since the intervals for traditional HIIT are longer, it’s better suited for beginners,” says Villa. “This allows you more time to focus on form, stability, and overall conditioning.”
If you're new to the HIIT scene and want to give tabata a try, though, you certainly can. The key, Hammond says, is to stick to simpler exercises so that you can go all-out without sacrificing form. His go-to's:
- jumping jacks
- pushups
- high knees
- squat to overhead press
Okay. But does tabata support weight loss?
No surprise here, folks: Like traditional HIIT, tabata is a super-effective type of exercise to support weight loss. “Since you perform tabata at such high intensity, your metabolism and heart rate increase immediately," Villa says.
Remember all that stuff about working in the anaerobic zone? More calories burned both during and after your workouts (which is known as the afterburn effect or EPOC) gives your body a better opportunity to use up any excess energy it's storing (which is all fat is, FYI). This means that adding tabata workouts to your fitness routine is an optimal way to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, which is the healthiest form of weight loss or weight management, according to pros.
Here’s what a tabata workout might look like...
First things first: Make sure you warm up with at least five minutes of dynamic stretching before doing a tabata workout, Villa says. This way, you can go hard, hard, hard without risking injury.
Then, you need to pick the exercises to do during your eight 20-second intervals. You can do the same move over and over or pick different ones for each interval. “The combinations are endless!” says Villa. From burpees to mountain climbers to lunges, you've got plenty of options.
Not sure where to start? Try one of these goal-specific options from Villa.
Tabata Dumbbell Strength Workout
Sumo Squat With Biceps Curl
How to: Start standing with feet slightly wider than shoulders, toes pointed out at 45 degrees, torso upright. Hold a set of dumbbells in both hands. Inhale, bend knees and sink hips down, aiming to get thighs parallel to the floor, while curling the dumbbells toward your shoulders and squeezing biceps at the top. Exhale and drive through your heels back to the starting position, straightening arms. That’s one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Squat to Overhead Press
How to: Start in a standing position with feet slightly wider than hip-distance apart. Hold a kettlebell in each hand racked on your shoulders. Lower your body down in to a squat. Then, keeping your core tight and torso upright, straighten your legs and press the weight overhead until your arms are straight, rotating your palms to face forward. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Renegade Row
How to: Start in plank position, holding dumbbells in either hand on the ground. Pull right elbow toward the ceiling until right wrist is near ribs, then lower it down. Repeat on opposite side. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Dumbbell Swing
How to: Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, holding one heavy dumbbell like a goblet. Hinge from the hips and bend knees while reaching the dumbbell back and between legs, keeping back flat and core engaged. Thrust hips forward to swing the dumbbell to about shoulder height and then down again to start. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before starting the entire circuit over from the top for a second and final round.
Tabata Plyo Workout
Lunge Jumps
How to: Start in a lunge with right leg forward and left back, both bent at 90 degrees, right arm straight at side, and left arm bent, hand in line with chin. Jump up quickly off floor, switching legs in midair to land in lunge with left left forward. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Squat Jumps
How to: Start standing with feet shoulder-width apart, toes forward, arms at sides. Bend knees, stick butt back, and lower down into a squat, bringing hands together in front of chest. Then explosively jump up as high as possible off floor, swinging arms straight behind body for momentum. Land softly on the balls of feet and immediately lower into next squat. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Burpee
How to: Stand in a standing position with feet shoulder-width apart, arms by sides. Drop body down into a low squat position, with hands on the floor. Then kick feet back, landing in a pushup plank position. Reverse the motion: Jump feet forward to the outsides of hands to come to a low squat position, then stand back up. That’s one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before continuing on to the next move.
Mountain Climbers
How to: Start in a plank position. Drive right knee toward chest, return to a plank and quickly repeat with left knee. That's one rep. Do as many reps as possible in 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds before starting the entire circuit over from the top for a second and final round.
The bottom line: Tabata is a type of HIIT workout that's just four minutes long. In tabata, you cycle through eight rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. All-out effort spikes your heart rate and burns major calories in just a short amount of time.
