Tabata Protocol is interval training that Izumi Tabata, Ph.D. – a Japanese researcher – designed for Olympic level athletes.
Broken down, it’s 7 minutes of warm up; followed by high intensity 100% effort bursts of 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest (starting at 4 series of sprints/rests up to 7 series of sprints/rests). You then do a cool down for 7 minutes (espeically key for old dogs like me!).
I have always believed in intervals and doing them has always been a key to staying in serious shape, IMHO.
But I got hurt in late April playing soccer (as I seem to be apt to do) and then re-injured the area in May. (Pulled groin – spare me the snickers, this injury HURTS and I’ll be down for another 4 weeks or so says the doc).
But I’m a fitness oriented guy and can’t play my sport. I’ve had to really rethink my workouts, I’m limited on what I can do. So I’m going a bit crazy. So I pulled my stationary bike back out and found that riding it doesn’t irriatate this injury at all. (Whew!)
So I barely recalled reading about this crazy Interval workout and using Google, found this.
I’ve been at it 3X a week now for the last 3 weeks. I’ve gone from barely making it through 4 cycles to ripping it through 6 cycles. I am pushing really hard too; my heart rate is cranking into the 167 range… which I don’t often see. (My max based on age and resting is 181 so I am hitting the bottom range of my VO2 range (aka 90%)). You feel like you are going to die towards the end of it, but man, it works.
So once I rehab this stupid injury completely (and not a DAY before it’s been cleared by the doc and I’ve been symptom free for at least a week doing wind sprints in the back field) and test this in ‘real life’ to see how my wind holds up in competition in the game, I can say that it feels good.
From the web: “…the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters — hard to accomplish …. (using this system) for six weeks improved their maximum aerobic capacity by 14%.” Compare that to traditional aerobic training at 70% for 60 minutes for six weeks showing an improvement of 9.5%.
Conventional Interval training, as I’ve done in the past, suggest keeping a 1:3 work-rest ratio (meaning your rest periods are 3X longer than your sprint periods). The Tabata Protocol’s work-rest ratio is 2:1.
If you are in shape (or have a doctor’s clearance to workout) then try this sort of Interval Training. I plan to maintain this level throughout from now on. It’s quick, it’s grueling, and it seems so far to be very effective. I won’t really know till I can bring it on the pitch for 60 minutes… but right now, injury or not, this has helped me remain in good shape.
Doing a mixture of P90X and this has been a good way to keep it together!
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