Today was Tabata Thursday at CrossFit Central, which means four minutes of hell on repeat for the uninitiated. I really love/hate Tabata. Tabata is an interval training regimen created by Dr. Izumi Tabata based on research that is way more complicated than I can summarize for you. Dr. Tabata demonstrated that athletes who used a four minute protocol of 20 seconds hard work, 10 seconds rest on repeat for 8 rounds showed dramatic gains in their anaerobic capacity and VO2Max (ability to consume oxygen). Read more about the protocol and what you can do with it here. Almost 15 years later, CrossFitters and other performance athletes are doing pretty much "Tabata Anything." This can be sprints, pullups, squats, pushups, thrusters, sandbag carries, anything! And if four minutes of work sounds easy to you, try it. Just try it for two minutes.
Today we did 3 sets of Tabata work: 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for each exercise. Pull-ups, lunges, wall ball. Oh my god, the wall ball after the lunges nearly killed me. I literally fell on the floor when time was finally called. I was toasted.
Next time I Tabata something, I'm going to play this song on repeat to keep me motivated.
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