Thursday, June 11, 2009

Tabata is mainstream now....

So the Tabata protocol goes mainstream. I saw this in a sports centre in Edinburgh on Sunday. I was there working at the European Election Count. They are now offering classes based on a Tabata protocol.

It is strange how this particular protocol has gained such a high profile. Something there has grabbed the imagination of many. One study by a Japanese scientist and now his name up on noticeboards in Scottish gyms. He could never have had an inkling of the way that his name would be used.

I first came across it in a Clarence Bass article back in 1997. 12 years later it hits the mainstream. To me it seems like old news but apparently it is the new hot routine......

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tabata is fucking murder.

Anonymous said...

Tabata burpees! Hahahaha. Had a friend at my gym try them- he didn't like me much after finishing.

Anonymous said...

The irony is that everyone talks about the abstract and nobody reads the whole study. Anyone who has actually read the entire paper would not be touting the "virtues" of Tabata intervals. Not very impressive results when you look at the details of the research. But weak science extrapolated by non-scientists are what fads are made of!

Rannoch Donald said...

Lot's of folk seem to confuse unterval training with the Tabata protocol which has very specific requirements. Offering a class in it would make it one of the shortest workouts available.

Most folk simply don;t hhave the fortitude to the actual protocol itself. Interval training on the other hand offers a much more scalable option.

Rannoch

Mike T Nelson said...

WOW, that is crazy!

Just because it is hard does not guarantee that it is effective

Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PhD(c),CSCS,RKC,ZMT
http://www.extremehumanperformance.com

dr. m.c. said...

very few folks actually do the tabata

170% vo2max
requires a particular cadence at a particular intensity on a bike to get.

when i hear folks say they do this with a kettlebell for example, i am amazed: it would take a 70swings/min according to calcs by Kenneth Jay to achieve that equivalent cadence power output.

it's not 20 on 10 off - though that's most often what people mean by "tabatta".

mc