Tabata sprints

[Matt]

Does anyone here have much experience with Tabata sprints? Now that my foot issue is mostly behind me, I'm starting to get back into some more speedwork. Tabata almost sounds too good to be true.

 

[Abide]

They are not too good to be

They are not too good to be true, trust me. You will feel as bad as if you ran an all out 5k.

I try to do them twice a week.

 

[sloutre]

It looks brutal! Maybe a good

It looks brutal! Maybe a good thing to do when training time is limited.

 

[Matt]

Abide wrote:They are not too

They are not too good to be true, trust me. You will feel as bad as if you ran an all out 5k.

I try to do them twice a week.

That's what I love to hear. I did a full Tabata sprint session back in the Spring, and it had me totally gassed. The problem was that I was dealing with a foot issue at the time, and I really needed to easy up on my running for awhile.

 

[Abide]

I usually do these on a Tmill

I usually do these on a Tmill at an incline of 12%. Then go as fast as I can, which really isn't that fast. I have done them with different excercises too, but I have never done it as sprints on a flat surface. Maybe I'll try this out.

I think the study was done originally with a bike, and from what I have read it doesn't really matter what you are doing but you have to go all out the whole 20 seconds. I don't think they are as effective for excercises that cause muscle failure before the 20 second mark.

 

[Matt]

Abide wrote:I think the study

I think the study was done originally with a bike, and from what I have read it doesn't really matter what you are doing but you have to go all out the whole 20 seconds. I don't think they are as effective for excercises that cause muscle failure before the 20 second mark.

I've seen people talk about doing these with pushups, but I know there is no way I would be able to do pushups for the full time without giving out at some point. But I think burpees might be a good one to do.

 

[Abide]

Burpees! Haha that's nuts.CF

Burpees! Haha that's nuts.

CF has a couple of variations of tabata that are pretty twisted. You do rowing, squats, pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups back to back. Most people can't go all out for all of these so I think the Tabata effect is kind of negated. But you do get a good workout.

 

[Mike]

Push-ups, and pull-ups are

Push-ups, and pull-ups are supposed to be slow and controlled... So those exercises do not seem like a good Tabata choices to me. uzzled:

 

[Abide]

Mike wroteush-ups, and

Push-ups, and pull-ups are supposed to be slow and controlled... So those exercises do not seem like a good Tabata choices to me. uzzled:

There are a lot of differing opinions about that. I tend to side with the opinion as long as you get the full range of motion you can go as fast or slow as you want.

 

[jschwab]

I do all out sprints on the

I do all out sprints on the straightaway at my gym's little indoor track. It's 26 laps to a mile so probably son't get up to 20 seconds, but I have felt that doing them helps alot with my form and strength.

 

[Matt]

I think that speed is kind of

I think that speed is kind of like surfaces. It's good to try out a variety of speeds.