Interesting point of view about Tabata and HIIT
Extract:
"There have been literally hundreds of varieties of intervals used in
training over the years where work-to-rest ratios are manipulated to
match sport demands.
The most popular lately is Tabata training. Izumi Tabata was a
Japanese researcher who did testing on one specific interval protocol
with the Japanese speed skating team. They did one day a week of steady
state and then four days of HIIT. Twenty seconds of extremely intense
effort (170 per cent of VO2max) followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated
for a total of four minutes. The study was groundbreaking for the
fitness world as the participants saw similar results to a control group
who cycled for an hour five times a week. Eighty minutes or five hours;
seems like a no-brainer, until you are bent over feeling nauseous and
wondering who turned down the oxygen as this is one extremely intense
four-minute session.
Please realize that Tabata training only refers to the 10 rest 20
work protocol because they are not the only ones finding great results
with HIIT.
Canadian professor Martin Gibala at McMaster University decided that
170 per centVO2 max was unreasonable for people not on a national team
and so set up a protocol a little more user friendly. He saw similar
benefits to typical five times a week steady state cardio with three
sessions of 60 seconds work versus 75 seconds rest.
Other researchers have shown great results as well; Zuniga looked at
30 seconds to 30 seconds, Timmons did two minutes easy with 20-second
bursts, Kravitz mixes all manner of ratios together.
What does all this research mean? Well simply, HIIT is an efficient
way to train and see results. Whether one method is better than another
is a question of whether it matches the current level of functioning of
the target group."
Full article: link
