Can You Really Get Fit in Just 4 Minutes?

Research has shown that people can get fit in just 4 minutes of exercise per day. Your initial reaction may be to laugh at this seemingly impossible statement, but before you call us crazy let us explain.

Tabata training, which was first described by the Japanese professor Izumi Tabata in 1996, involves high intensity interval training for a total of only 4 minutes. Professor Tabata was commissioned to help Japanese Olympic speed skaters get into condition for optimal performance. After testing various intervals and intensities, he found that the athletes who completed high intensity training over a 4 minute period were able to improve their overall fitness (i.e. strength, flexibility, aerobic and anaerobic capacity) by a 13% increase when compared to athletes who completed an hour of steady state aerobic conditioning.

Four minutes versus one hour seems too good to be true, right? While these results are promising, the question then becomes whether these results can be applied to subjects outside of Professor Tabata’s study. Can you really get fit in just 4 minutes? Keep reading to learn what we found out!

What is Tabata training?

Tabata training is a form of high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, in which athletes alternate between a 20 second burst of ultra-high intensity anaerobic training followed by a 10 second recovery. The sequence is then repeated 8 times, which sums up to a total of 4 minutes. Anaerobic exercise is defined as short duration, high intensity exercise lasting anywhere from merely seconds up to around two minutes. Anaerobic means without oxygen, which means that this type of training is so intense that it depletes your body’s oxygen stores, forcing it to use anaerobic metabolic pathways.

As mentioned above, Tabata training originated from Professor Izumi Tabata and his colleagues during their study of the effects of moderate intensity training and HIIT. The study, published in 1996 in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, evaluated two groups of speed-skating athletes.

The first group performed bicycle training at moderate intensity (70% VO2 max) for one hour, five days per week, for a total of six weeks. The second group completed four-minute, high-intensity (170% VO2 max) workouts on the cycles four days per week for a total of six weeks. The second group completed its four minutes of work by doing eight intervals of training with maximum effort for 20 seconds, then resting for 10 seconds.

Professor Tabata refers to this technique has a “very fast increase in VO2 max”, according to tabatatraining.com. VO2 max is a measure of the maximum capacity of your body to transport and use oxygen during a period of exertion or work. Tabata training results in a very fast increase in VO2 max because the 20 second high intensity intervals were designed to be executed at or near maximal effort.

The results from the study were quite remarkable. Tabata and his colleagues found that athletes in the second group who completed the four minute, high-intensity interval workouts were able to improve their overall fitness (i.e. strength, flexibility, aerobic and anaerobic capacity) by 13% more than athletes of the first group. He also found that the second group had an increase in their anaerobic fitness by 28% when compared to the moderate intensity first group. (Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 1996)

Misconceptions regarding Tabata training

The biggest misconception regarding Tabata training is that you can simply do an exercise 8 times over 20-second intervals and get fit. No! Tabata training requires you to go to your maximum capacity during those 20 seconds. And maximum does not mean just going really hard. Maximum capacity means you’re performing four minutes of the same movement at “kill-yourself intensity”. While it only takes four minutes to complete a Tabata circuit, those four minutes may well push your body to its absolute limit.

In the article The Tabata Delusion Tony Gentilcore points out that nowadays Tabata has grown to encapsulate everything: Tabata burpees, Tabata apple picking, Tabata recycling, Tabata dating. While this is certainly comical, it is actually quite true. Most people who say they are doing “Tabata training” are actually very far from performing what this workout should entail. It all has to do with your VO2 max.

In the study, VO2 max was determined by having the athlete ride the bicycle ergometer while researchers measured their oxygen uptake. Then, they gradually increased the wattage until the athlete’s oxygen uptake no longer continued to rise. This is considered 100% of their VO2 Max; it is often associated with complete exhaustion and/or vomiting. Now imagine increasing the resistance on the bicycle to increase the wattage to 170% of that value. That is the intensity required for a true Tabata interval. Each 20 second interval is completed with absolute maximal effort.

Can you really get fit in just 4 minutes?

Many popular fitness and bodybuilding websites suggest Tabata routines for people to follow that are based on the Tabata study. However, these workouts can’t be considered true Tabata training because this would require a method of measuring VO2 max and oxygen uptake. Unless you have a bicycle ergometer at home, this might be a little difficult.

What you can do, however, is HIIT, which is similar to Tabata except less of that “I’m going to die” feeling after each interval. HIIT workouts are still very intense and offer many benefits. Plus, they are time efficient, with many of them designed to be completed in 15 minutes or less. So can you really get fit in just 4 minutes? Maybe. If you can foster the energy to get up to that level of intensity and have a way to measure it, the results from the Tabata study suggest that yes, you can really get fit with just 4 minute workouts. But you’ll be more likely to reach your goals by following a tried-and-true HIIT workout, even if it does take a few extra minutes. Plus, if you end your workouts with a PI Post Workout BCAA or Performance Whey protein shake, you’ll optimize your post workout recovery and be ready to get another training session in sooner!