The Trouble with Tabata

Everyone at some point in their training “life” has heard of, or used, Tabata. Over the past five years or so it has become popular with Health Club PT’s and Strength Coaches, as it’s an easy way to make the client/athlete feel like they are working/improving without putting any effort into the sessions. Make somebody work as hard as they can for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, then repeat. Sounds worthwhile doesn’t it? Well, the majority of the trainers conducting the sessions actually have NO idea what Tabata really is and I’d bet my bottom dollar that they haven’t taken the time to read the study. In actual fact they’ve probably bought Men’s Fitness that previous weekend, and have read about it being “the only way to train” and decide that they need-not look any further.

Before I let you know my thoughts on why Tabata is miss-used and miss-understood, lets look at the study that was conducted by Inzumi Tabata (Godfather of Interval Training):

·         The study set out to compare both Anaerobic and Aerobic adaptations when using interval training, and how it effects VO2 Max.

·         The study recruited 14 active (moderately trained at best) male students.

·         All the workouts were conducted on a mechanically braked bicycle ergometer.

·         The individuals were split into two test groups.

·         The first group (aerobic group) trained 5 days per week. At 70% VO2 Max. Workouts lasted 60 minutes, at a cadence of 70 RPM. This lasted for 6 weeks.

·         The second group (tabata group) trained 4 days per week under the Tabata protocol. 7-8 sets of 20 seconds at 170% of VO2 Max with a 10 second rest between intervals. On their fifth day of training the performed a steady state workout lasting 30 minutes.

·         Group 1 found that there were no increases in anaerobic capacity, but a significant increase in VO2 Max.

·         Group 2 found an increase in both anaerobic capacity and VO2 Max. Although before you think I’ve contradicted my argument, it is worth realising that the Tabata group started at lower conditioning level than group 1, and ended up STAYING at a lower conditioning level.

·         On the graph above the white lined group is the Aerobically trained individuals, and the black line is the Tabata group.

·         You can see that the Tabata group only really made improvements for the first 3 weeks! Even though they continued to increase the intensity of the intervals.

Now that I’ve given you the outline of the study and very brief explanation of the results, I’ll let you know MY opinions on why Tabata is miss-used and miss-understood.

Firstly let’s look at the most obvious result. The lack of improvement in VO2 Max within the Tabata group. Although they made increases in their VO2 Max, they still ended up with lover levels than the Aerobically trained individuals (The whole reason for the study in the first place was to see how interval training improved VO2 Max – and I guarantee that if you asked a PT why Tabata training is “so good” they’d give you some BS about huge improvements in VO2 Max). Any improvements that were found only really occurred within the first 3 to 4 weeks. Which asks the question why certain fitness movements are fixated on solely using interval styled training as their methodology when for 49 weeks of year you won’t see any drastic improvements in fitness levels. Would you want to bust your gut for the best part of a year and get nothing back? Thought not.  

Secondly lets look at the equipment used. A bike. What’s the worst that’s going to happen on a bike. You stop pedalling or you may drop your water bottle. However promoters of Tabata seem to feel that using high skilled movements such as treadmill sprinting, deadlifts, hang cleans, box jumps, and snatches are a safe way to perform the intervals…..seriously?

Now biggest miss-understanding with Tabata is the level of effort needed. If you refer back to an earlier point I made – the intervals must be performed at 170% of VO2 Max! A well conditioned athlete may reach their VO2 Max at 350 watts on a stationary bike. If they are lucky they may be able to maintain that for 3 minutes. If you had a crazy conditioned athlete then you’d be lucky to get 5 minutes at that level.

If you were to take that well-conditioned athlete at workout 170% of their VO2 Max it would be a nasty 510 Watts. To put that into perspective a Tour-De-France cyclist can maintain about 400 for an hour. That’s crazy! The majority of people that have “used” Tabata wouldn’t have got anywhere near their 170% at ANY of the workout.

If you’re crazy enough to feel you could reach that level by using DB Lunges, Hang Cleans or Deadlifts then I guess you’re more deluded than first thought….or as I would imagine the case to be, you had no idea that 170% was the level required.

Lastly……. The lack of understanding about overall performance seems to be the most common theme. PT’s and strength coaches seem to overlook the fact that anaerobic capacity IS NOT the only way to condition an athlete. In fact it’s definitely not the most important aspect of performance. Having a strong aerobic base will help you recover quicker, go for longer, and generally be a better athlete.

As I’ve always said….my opinions are my opinions. If you don’t agree with me then that’s fine, I won’t be offended. But what I will be offended by are stupid ideas, and uneducated trainers. 20 seconds intervals using kettlebells or box jumps may be tough, but it’s not Tabata.