If you’re looking for a little variety in your exercise routine, and wouldn’t mind also getting a very effective aerobic and anaerobic conditioning workout, try Tabata intervals. Taba who?

The concept of Tabata intervals originated from a study performed by Dr. Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. The protocol consists of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise followed by ten seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated for four minutes, or a total of eight intense intervals.

“You’ve got to be kidding”, you may well be thinking “Four minutes? What kind of workout can I get in four minutes?” Well, as it turns out, an extremely effective one. Everyone who’s given the Tabata protocol a try is amazed at just how intense four minutes of exercise can be. However, since very few people want to work extremely hard just for the fun of it, you’re probably interested in what kind of results you can expect. Well, the subjects in the original study were already very fit individuals at the beginning, and they still increased their anaerobic capacity 28%, and their VO2max by 14% in just six weeks. This is an excellent improvement for such highly trained athletes.

The key to getting excellent results is to make sure that the work cycles are very hard. The study referred to the workouts as “exhaustive intermittent training”. As a matter of fact, the study participants exercised at around 170% of VO2max.

Read more about the four minute workout