2) Tabata & al, study : c. Explanations

There are some parameters to consider.

First, the exercise chosen was “a mechanically braked cycle ergometer”. We will see later if Tabata can be applied to other equipment or form of exercise.

Then, people chosen had already a correct VO2max, they were active people.

Now, if we look at the exercises by itself, it’s 8 bouts of 20 seconds at 170% of VO2max with 10s rest between each bout. The two criteria are important here : the 2:1 ratio effort to exercise, and the very high intensity of effort. We will discuss later about what is Tabata or not, as some people just took the 20 s effort followed by 10s rest as  Tabata..forgetting the gruelling 170% Vo2max effort!

As a guideline, during the study, the pedaling speed was 90-rpm. Intensity was measured in Watts. For instance, a good cyclist could perform Tabata at 420-450 watts for each bout of intensity at 90-100 rpm.

I Remember that to perform correctly the Tabata training, you need to combine the short bouts of efforts with even shorter bouts of rest, with a very high intensity of exercise!

There were 5 sessions per week, identical, except one, “altered”, with 30mn at 70% VO2max and only 4 bouts of 20s /10s. We don’t have more details whether this unique altered session makes a great difference or not.

In short:

TABATA = 8 repetitions of (20 seconds of effort at 170% VO2max and 10s rest )

a.    Articles / web

There are a lot of articles on internet, summarizing the Tabata study and results. Here are some:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training#Tabata_Method

http://www.intervaltraining.net/tabata.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Tabata-Anything---Four-Minutes-of-Pain-to-Gain&id=348486

http://www.fastexercise.com/studies.asp

Some interesting documents:

http://www.fastexercise.com/pdf/Japanese_Study.pdf

http://www.cs.unm.edu/~wneumann/files/guerilla_cardio.pdf : for sprinting