Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and his team at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, conducted research on two groups of athletes.
The first group trained at a moderate intensity level while the second group trained at a high intensity level.
The moderate intensity group worked out 5 days a week, for an hour, for a total of 6 weeks. While the high-intensity group worked out 4 days a week for 6 weeks; each workout lasted 4 minutes and 20 seconds.
Group 1 had increased their aerobic system, but showed little or no results for their anaerobic system. Group 2 showed much more increase in their aerobic system than Group 1, and increased their anaerobic system by 28 percent.
They therefore concluded that over 6 weeks high intensity training increased fitness levels, both aerobic and aerobic.
So What Might A Tabata Workout Look Like?
Looking all over the internet at different workouts I found many different approaches from 4 min workouts just like Dr. Tabata, to workouts lasting 30 mins and longer. Which to me, seems far too long for a high intensity workout. I do not see how anyone would be able to sustain high intensity for any longer than 4-5mins.
The high intensity is obviously key for it to be a high intensity workout and to reap the benefits otherwise it just turns into a moderate intensity workout screwing with your recovery and weight loss/muscle/strength building program.
Not being an avid follower of tabata myself I do not know what the popularity of shorter/longer/bodyweight/weight lifting tabata workouts are. So here are 2 I found which were very different;
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From Muscle and Fitness –
DUMBBELL TABATA WORKOUT:
1. Bicep Curls
2. Incline Flyes
3. Arnold Shoulder Press
4. Side Lateral Raise
* 20 seconds on each exercise with a 10 second rest in between x 2 sets
From Greatist –
20 seconds of all-out effort with 10 seconds of rest. Continue to repeat the same move for 8 rounds, a total of 4 minutes. Then perform the next move on the list, following the same directions.
1 Broad Jump to Fast Feet
2 Mountain Climber to Single Leg Push-Up
3Lateral Lunge to Knee Drive
4 Lunge Chop
5 Squat Thrust to Frog Jump
6 Skater to Curtsy Lunge
But Is Tabata Training Any Better Than Lower Intensity Workouts?
There’s no doubt that high intensity interval training can have benefits, it’s time effective and may induce similar performance adaptations to longer duration traditional cardio, in a short time, when fitness improvements are a goal. Low amounts of high intensity training can have very large benefits for performance.
However for weight loss high intensity training has no more benefit to low intensity training. When someone is dietin, weight training is always important and therefore sufficient rest and recovery must be programmed for. Now conducting weight training (3-4x per week) and high intensity cardio (3-4x per week) is going to have a huge implication on your recovery and weight loss progress and program set up. After all dieting and resistant training should be your main focus to build and maintain muscle.
Steady state cardio, low intensity, is great for newcomers and can be done more often as it does not affect recovery. But high intensity training also has its benefits; such as being quick and efficient, produces a hormonal response releasing both adrenaline/noradrenaline in large amounts along with depleting glycogen stores (stored glucose) which aids in the break down on fat (lipolysis) as well as by increasing heat expenditure. (1-7)
Many suggest high intensity is best for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption, (EPOC) essentially the ‘extra’ calories you burn after training, through recovery.
However, I will turn to Lyle Mcdonald’s explanation on the small benefits of EPOC;
‘Semi-recapping from yesterday, the paper concluded that high intensity training can generate larger EPOChs at least in terms of the percentage contribution. The paper suggested that values of a 7% EPOC for steady state work but 14% for interval work were approximately correct values so that’s what I’m going to use…
So I’m going to be focusing ONLY on EPOC here. Again, I’m going to assume a 7% EPOC for steady state cardio and a 14% EPOC for intervals and put those into some real world perspective.
Say I do 20 minutes of intervals and burn 200 calories. I get a 14% EPOC which is 28 whole calories. Total calorie burn = 228 calories.
Let’s say I do 20 minutes of steady state cardio and burn the same 200 calories. 7% EPOC which is 14 calories = 214 calories.
So, for an equivalent duration workout, the interval workout comes out a whopping 14 calories ahead due to the impact of EPOC. That will net me an extra pound of fat loss every 250 days (3500 calories / 14 calories per day = 250 days). Hooray. Clearly, for any equivalent length workout the interval training will always come out slightly ahead…
The intervals only come out a TINY bit ahead if you compare workouts of identical length and even there the difference is absolutely insignificant.
But between now and Monday, here’s a question for my readers (or the pro-interval crowd) to ponder:
Let’s say I want or need to train daily for fat loss (most athletes train every day, as do most dieters).
Which am I more likely to do on a day-in day-out basis? Which is more likely to lean me out faster? Which am I more likely to BE ABLE to do daily (from a recovery standpoint)?
130 minutes of intervals: burning 342 calories including EPOC.
260 minutes of moderate steady state cardio: burning 642 calories including EPOC.’
So what is better?
Well first and foremost ask yourself if you need to be conducting
cardio?
If you are an endurance athlete or sportsman requiring a high
level of fitness then obviously you will need to. However, if you
are only looking to lose weight, or improve health cardio may
nor be necessary.
Look to only create a calorie deficit of 10-20%, with weight training being your primary type of training to preserve muscle and improve health. While cardio will aid in creating a calorie deficit by burning calories, it can’t change the shape of your body the way weight training can.
It is a lot easier to manipulate and control the ‘calories in’ via diet than the ‘calories out’ through cardio, this is why your diet should be your first port of call for losing weight. To create a daily deficit of 500 calories for example could equate to cutting dinner by half, but creating the same deficit through cardio alone could take up to an hour’s worth of sitting on the bike, which can be boring and not achievable within an individual’s lifestyle.
Cardio is an additional tool that can be used to aid in fat loss and boost your caloric deficit, and should only be added, from a fat loss perspective, once calories become too low for performance/enjoyment/health or when weight loss has plateaued
*Having said this though, if cardio is going to be the only type of exercise you will/can conduct due to lifestyle or preferences. Then by all means go for a run as any form of exercise is better than none.
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