In recent years, the Internet has gotten a bit crazy for high-intensity interval training, proclaiming it’s superiority overall other forms of conditioning training. And while HIIT can take many forms, one popular one, wholly misrepresented in the fitness industry is what is called the Tabata Protocol.
This describes a very specific approach to HIIT created, originally for speed skaters, by an author named Tabata. Hence the name. It’s even been studied and it is this study that I want to look at today.
HIIT and the Tabata Protocol
The concept of HIIT is fairly general, it describes a method of training where short periods of near maximum training lasting 15-90 seconds (with some variance) are alternated with periods of low intensity activity for some number of rounds. … Keep Reading