Improve Your Fitness For Martial Arts With The Tabata Protocol

To rapidly improve both aerobic and anaerobic fitness is to use the Tabata protocol. This method takes just four minutes to complete but if done properly, it's four minutes you'll remember. The beauty is It's versatility, which will allow you to design the best Tabata workouts specific to your martial art.

The four minutes of the Tabata protocol is made up of eight sets of 20 seconds flat out effort followed by ten seconds rest. Sounds easy but it is anything but. Each set of 20 seconds effort must be at full throttle. Nothing less will do!

Even at a flat out rate four minutes doesn't sound a lot, if done properly a Tabata set should leave you heaving for breath and sweaty. If you are able to talk on completion of the workout, you really need to up the pace. Intensity is the key. An assistant timing the rounds for you will ensure you are not distracted from working as intensely as possible. Clock watching prevents you from giving your all and blasting out maximum reps.

If an assistant is not available an excellent alternative is a Tabata clock. I recommend the excellent and easy to use Gymboss Interval timer, which will easily cover your Tabata needs and a lot more too. There are free alternatives but in my honest opinion I'd fork out for the real deal, it's great value and can time much more than just Tabatas.

With a helper doing the timing, the Tabata protocol can be done properly, i.e. at a very high intensity, and is ideal for martial artists because you can practice a multitude of specific techniques within the routine. For example, your martial arts Tabata could use the heavy bag; anything applicable to heavy bag training can be included.

In fact, basing a Tabata workout on the heavy bag is a great way to spend four minutes. Each effort round could be a specific punch for one side of the body, or a kick. Certain techniques lend themselves to rapid fire execution on the heavy bag better than others; hooks verses uppercuts and round kicks verses side kicks. A little care in the selection of your techniques is a good idea.

Your martial art techniques can be used alongside regular exercises, such as jumping jacks and mountain climbers for variety. You decide, a combination of techniques and exercises work just fine.

Why not spice up your martial arts workouts by designing a Tabata session based on your martial art. You really do need to have someone time you to glean maximum benefits from your Tabata workout, however, if you train alone the Gymboss timer can save you. So what's stopping you?


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This great hub about Martial arts fitness training using the tabata protocol will give you much more information on its use in martial arts. If you haven't got someone to do the timing for you and you want to get the most out of your workouts the the Gymboss timer is what you need.