Tabata Intervals: The Fast Way to Fitness
To succeed in events that require a lot of stamina and endurance, you require a number of weapons in your competitive armoury. But, for an endurance athlete wanting to perform at a high standard, a high level of aerobic power (commonly known as VO2 peak) is really a minimum requirement.
Aerobic power is extremely important for just about any endurance athlete looking to perform at their best. An advanced level of aerobic power lets you run, cycle or swim faster for a longer time.
Achieving a high level of performance in almost any endurance event will take many years of exercise, which is required to develop a strong base of fitness. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence to indicate that you can significantly increase your aerobic power in three weeks or less.
Interval training has formed a large part of runners exercise routines for many years. It calls for rounds of high intensity exercise (i.e. sprinting) separated by phases of low intensity activity (such as strolling or jogging).
In the last few years, a branch of interval exercise often known as high intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) has developed a history of producing rapid improvements in aerobic power - in some instances employing workouts lasting only 4 minutes. High intensity intermittent exercise (which has also become known as tabata intervals - http://muscleevo.com/tabata-intervals-fat-loss/) entails short bouts of maximal effort lasting 30 seconds or less. Rest periods may last anywhere between 10 seconds and five minutes.
Leading exercise scientists believe that HIIE workouts can play an important role in improving your VO2 peak several weeks before a competition or event.
As an example, researchers at the University of Barcelona tested a HIIE programme lasting just fourteen days. The programme required daily workout sessions comprising 15-second all-out work periods, followed by 45 seconds of rest. After just 2 weeks of training, aerobic power had increased by a remarkable 11% - a change normally connected with programmes lasting considerably longer.
Even more persuasive is research from a team at Japan’s National Institute of Fitness and Sport. The researchers examined two exercise routines, the first made up of conventional moderate intensity exercise (cycling) for 60 minutes, five days a week. The other programme involved HIIE, and was made up of 8 all-out work periods lasting twenty seconds, with 10 seconds of rest. Despite the fact that each exercise session lasted just four minutes, VO2 peak gains in the HIIE test subjects were more than 50% higher than individuals performing the moderate intensity training.
Similar results have been reported in many other tests, some involving just ten maximal effort work periods lasting 30 seconds each. Even the researchers were surprised by their results, referring to such extraordinary improvements in aerobic power as surprising, given the short length of each exercise session.
Not only has HIIE demonstrated striking effects on VO2 peak, research shows it can also transform your endurance performance. A research group from South Africa’s University of Cape Town Medical School looked at the effect of five unique variations of interval exercise on a 40km time trial. The length of the work bouts varied between half a minute and eight minutes. Each cyclist completed a total of six sessions over a three-week period, carrying out their regular training on separate days. You
The thirty second work bouts led to a large improvement in performance, whereas intervals lasting sixty seconds had no effect. While the scientists weren’t absolutely sure why the thirty second bouts were so effective, they think that brief, more intense work bouts can make a muscle more resistant to fatigue.
