How to use the online timer
Twenty seconds of work, ten seconds of rest, eight times through: four minutes in total. The protocol comes from research led by Izumi Tabata in the 1990s, carried out on a stationary bicycle with athletes working at an intensity most people never approach voluntarily. Everything about the format follows from that — the very short rest, the small number of rounds, and the fact that it finishes almost immediately.
The twenty seconds is meant to be maximal, not brisk. Ten seconds of rest is not recovery, and by the fifth round it should feel nothing like the first. Pick something simple and repeatable — a bike, a rower, squats, skipping — because complex movements fall apart at that intensity. Keep the tab open while it runs; the count lives in the page and stops if it closes.
The name gets attached to almost any twenty-ten format now, including gentle ones, which is fine as a workout but is not what the original protocol described. If four minutes leaves you able to hold a conversation, the intensity was the thing that was missing, not the length. Warm up properly beforehand: four minutes at full effort from cold is an awkward way to start.
Common questions
Where does the twenty-ten format come from?
Research led by Izumi Tabata in the 1990s, carried out on a stationary bicycle with athletes working at a very high intensity. The short rest and the eight rounds both follow from that original protocol.
Is four minutes really a whole session?
Only at the intensity the protocol assumes, and it needs a proper warm-up beforehand. Most versions labelled tabata are gentler than the original, which is fine as exercise but is not the same thing.
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