Tabata Training - Martial Arts Conditioning Program

Tabata training is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) program that last about 4 minutes. The conditioning program consists of working out at a high level for 20 seconds and resting for 10 seconds. Martial arts students will do eight of these activity & rest sets during the 4 minute workout. This program was developed by a Japanese professor, Dr. Izumi Tabata.

During each 20 second high intensity workout segment, martial arts students should focus on a single exercise such as push-ups, burpees, squats, mountain climbers, etc. However, over the course of the entire four minutes, athletes will often do a different exercise for each of the 20 second workout segments.

This conditioning program helps martial artists by quickly improving their aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic (muscle) strength. According to Wikipedia, "athletes using this method trained 4 times per week, plus another day of steady-state training, and obtained gains similar to a group of athletes who did steady state training (70% VO2max) 5 times per week. The steady state group had a higher VO2max at the end (from 52 to 57 mL/(kg•min)), but the Tabata group had started lower and gained more overall (from 48 to 55 mL/(kg•min)). Also, only the Tabata group had gained anaerobic capacity benefits".

For other conditioning information & exercises, please visit the main Martial Arts Conditioning section.

Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, High-intensity interval training, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training, Added - 07/23/15