3 Tabata Workouts that Will Make You Sweat (And How to Make Your Own)

You’ve been hearing the word Tabata being thrown around at the gym, office, or school, and now you’re asking yourself: what is Tabata?

High-intensity interval training or HIIT has been in the fitness spotlight for the last decade. Tabata can be looked at as the bigger and meaner brother to HIIT. It’s an advanced-style HIIT workout that will push you hard, but provide incredible results…in only four minutes.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of Tabata, how you can build your own Tabata workouts, and three to get you started. 

Benefits of Tabata Workouts

Fat Burner: 

Due to the high-intensity nature of a Tabata workout, your body’s metabolic rate will spike off the charts. What’s more, your EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) levels will also be elevated, which means more fat burning hours after your workout has stopped.

Time Saver: 

The average Tabata workout will take between four and ten minutes. The all-or-nothing nature of a Tabata workout will make you feel like you’ve been training for hours. However, in reality, it’s only a fraction of a typical weightlifting workout.

Overall Performance: 

Studies have shown that subjects who follow a Tabata-style workout have similar cardio improvements as the steady state cardio type workouts. 

Create Your Own Tabata Workout

A typical Tabata workout consists of eight rounds of an exercise that follows an alternating 20 seconds of a performance and a 10-second break. 

The modern-style Tabata workout tends not to focus on one exercise for eight rounds. Instead, most Tabata classes arrange their workouts with one new exercise per round. For example, you start with squats, advance to push-ups, then go to lunges.

Here’s a quick breakdown of Tabata workout acute variables:

• 8 rounds

• 1 exercise per round

• 20 seconds of you doing the exercise

• 10 seconds of rest

• 20 seconds of you doing the next exercise

• 10 seconds of rest

• Repeat this pattern

Seems easy, right? Here’s the catch: During those 20 seconds, you must go all out. Give everything you have to that exercise. If you finish a Tabata workout and you don’t feel exhausted, you didn’t go hard enough.

Have some great ideas for Tabata exercises? You can create your own Tabata workout with the Madbarz app. Simply download the app, create an account, and select the Workout Creator (Favourites button). You’ll be provided with dozens of exercises to choose from. Select the ones you want, enter the rounds, repetitions, and a rest break. Then get to work! However, you can only save up to five custom made workouts with the free version of the app. However, with Madbarz Premium you can save unlimited custom workouts!

3 Tabata Workouts You Can Use Right Now

If you need some inspiration, here are three Tabata workouts to get you started. Don’t forget to track these workouts in the Madbarz app!

Tabata Workout #1 (Modern)

1 round of:

• Burpees: 20 seconds

• Alternating Lunges: 20 seconds

• Spiderman Push-Ups: 20 seconds

• Wall Sit: 20 seconds

• High Knees: 20 seconds

• Sit Ups: 20 seconds

• Superman Hold: 20 seconds

• Plank: 20 seconds

Rest for 10 seconds in between exercises.

Tabata Workout #2 (Classic)

1 round of:

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squats: 20 seconds

Rest for 10 seconds in between exercises.

Tabata Workout #3 (Hybrid)

Ideal for leg day:

1 round of:

• Wall Sit: 20 seconds

• Jump Squat: 20 seconds

• Reverse Lunges: 20 seconds

• Bulgarian Split Squats: 20 seconds

• Jump Squat: 20 seconds

• Reverse Lunges: 20 seconds

• Bulgarian Split Squats: 20 seconds

• Sprint: 20 seconds

Rest for 10 seconds in between exercises.

TAKEAWAY

Even if you are addicted to your traditional weightlifting workouts, try a Tabata workout. They are ideal for when you’re short on time or traveling somewhere without gym access.

Use Madbarz workout creator for creating Tabata based workouts, and get Madbarz Premium for unlimited space for saving your custom workouts!