Tabata training – description, effects, exercises [WE EXPLAIN]

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Tabata training has recently been gaining great popularity. Just enter the phrase “Tabata” in the search engine to get a number of results. However, are the trainings presented by online trainers really Tabata training and does performing such exercises make sense for beginners? What are the effects of training, which is more and more often called Tabata training, and has nothing to do with the real Tabata? Or maybe it is worth choosing a different type of training?

Training Tabata — history

Tabata training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of scientists from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo.

Tabata and his team conducted research on two groups of athletes. The first group trained at a moderate intensity, while the second group trained at a high level. The moderate-intensity group exercised five days a week for a total of six weeks – each training session lasting one hour. The high-intensity group exercised four days a week for six weeks – each training session lasted four minutes and 20 seconds (with 10 seconds of rest between sets).

Results: Group 1 increased their aerobic (cardiovascular) system but showed little or no results for their anaerobic (muscle) system. Group 2 showed a much greater increase in its aerobic system than Group 1 and increased its anaerobic system by 28 percent.

Summarizing, High-intensity interval training has a greater effect on both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.

Also check: The level of physical activity is in our genes

Tabata training – what is it?

The secret of the effectiveness of Tabata training for professionals training is based on the creation of the so-called oxygen debt that it brings our body out of a low pH state, which in turn leads to the removal of anaerobic products of post-exercise changes.

Such a high consumption of oxygen has a very beneficial effect on fat burning, which is not burned during the exercise itself, but many hours after its completion. Some studies show that after tabata training, metabolism is increased by up to 15 percent for approximately 24 hours after completing the training.

Read: Training for fat reduction

Tabata – how to exercise?

Tabata training itself is very short – it only lasts 4 minutes, which is roughly the duration of our favorite song or commercial break during a TV program. To perform Tabata training, you do not need any additional equipment, only a sports outfit and a place to exercise.

Correctly performed tabata training is to perform 4 exercises with the use of your own body weight in 8 minutes, one after the other. Each exercise should be performed for 20 seconds as quickly as possible (do not omit the technique of performing the exercises, they must be performed correctly), then a 10-second break and another 20 seconds of the next exercise in the series. After you have completed all eight series of exercises, rest until your breathing has calmed down, and then complete 2 more series.

It is worth remembering that tabata training was developed for the needs of professional athletes, therefore at the beginning of the adventure with Tabata, the rest intervals can be extended to 60-80 seconds, systematically shortening them as our condition grows. Tabata training should not be performed more than 3 times a week.

Read: How to get rid of adipose tissue and not harm yourself?

Tabata – exercises

Which exercises to choose for the tabata training series? Push-ups, squats, sprint in place, squats with a barbell, pull-ups, squats with weights, riding a stationary bike, etc. When deciding to perform tabata training, do not forget about warming up or performing the exercises correctly. As part of the warm-up, it is worth jogging in place for 10 minutes or jumping rope.

Tabata – effects

Tabata is not a training for people starting their adventure with sport. The shortcomings in the exercises performed make the training pointless. Moreover, people who decide to start training usually want to lose weight quickly – tabata training will not have this effect. Tabata allows for the maximum increase in aerobic and anaerobic capacity of professional athletes and was created with such an effect in mind.

For people who just want to sculpt their body a little, there is a whole group of simpler and much more effective workouts. Tabata makes sense only for people for whom sport is not only a ritual necessary to keep a slim figure.

Often times, tabata training is confused with other HIIT training. Most of the workouts imitating the original tabata training consists of exercises that allow some muscle groups to rest for a while, while the real Tabata training is the maximum involvement of the selected muscle group throughout all 8 series of exercises.

Although many articles suggest that changing the exercises in the circuits performed is no exception and we are doing tabata training in this way, this is not true – we are doing regular HIIT training. Professor Tabata considered the training performed seven times to repeat 8 series of exercises involving the same muscle group. Tabata trainings available on the Internet usually do not have much to do with the original assumptions of the author of the training.

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