How Tabata and interval training are timed.
What a Tabata is, where the 20 and 10 seconds come from, and how to set your own rounds of work and rest on an interval timer with pips.
By Suraj Kumar3 min read
Interval training alternates hard work with short rests. The Tabata shape comes from a 1996 study.
Twenty seconds on, ten off.
Izumi Tabata's 1996 study used eight rounds of 20 seconds of very hard cycling with 10 seconds of rest between them. Press Tabata on the interval timer and it is set: 4 minutes after a 10-second count-in.
Pips you can hear.
Three short pips count you into each change and a longer one marks it, all set on the sound clock when you press Start, so you need not watch the screen.
Your own rounds.
Set the work and rest in seconds and the number of rounds. The page says how long the whole workout will take.
Further reading
Topics: tabata timer · interval timer · hiit timer · 20 10 timer · workout timer · round timer
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