Workout timer · Tabata intervals
Tabata
Tabata is 8 rounds of 20 seconds of all-out work and 10 seconds of rest, 4 minutes in all. Pick one move you can push hard and safely, such as bike sprints, squat jumps or burpees, and go flat out for every 20 seconds. Start the timer below: it runs right here, with a beep for every change.
- Total time
- 4:00 · 4 minutes
- Format
- Tabata intervals
- Equipment
- None. A bike, rower or jump rope works too.
Scan this with your iPhone camera to open the workout in Circa, the free interval timer.
The workout
Tabata
4:008 rounds · 0:20 work · 0:10 rest
Show every step (16)
- TABATA · ROUND 1 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 1 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 2 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 2 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 3 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 3 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 4 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 4 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 5 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 5 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 6 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 6 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 7 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 7 OF 8Rest0:10
- TABATA · ROUND 8 OF 8Work0:20
- TABATA · ROUND 8 OF 8Rest0:10
How to do it
Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes first. Then work as hard as you can for 20 seconds and rest for 10, eight times. Keep the same move for all eight rounds, or alternate two.
It should feel very hard by round four. If you can hold a conversation, push harder; if your form breaks down, slow the move, not the clock.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: rest for 20 seconds instead of 10, or do 4 rounds. Harder: do two or four Tabatas with a minute of rest between them.
Where it comes from
The protocol comes from Izumi Tabata's 1996 study of trained athletes on exercise bikes, who worked at about 170% of their VO2 max. Most people use the name for any 20-on, 10-off, 8-round interval.
Make your own
Type any workout (“8 x 20/10 burpees, squats”, “EMOM 10: 12 KB swings + 8 burpees”) and get a timer link and a “Run this workout” button for your own page.