Twenty seconds of work, ten seconds of rest, eight rounds, four minutes total. With a distinct tone for work and rest so you never have to look.
Get ready
0:10
Total: 4min
20s work / 10s rest, fixed
Keep this tab open and your screen on. Browsers suspend background tabs, so the beeps stop if you switch away. The app keeps running with the screen locked.
Same timer, with the screen off
The app keeps the clock and the beeps going when your phone locks. Free on iOS and Android.
The protocol is named after Izumi Tabata, whose 1996 study at Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports tested speed skaters on 20 seconds of all-out cycling followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated eight times. The group doing it improved both aerobic and anaerobic capacity more than a group doing an hour of steady state work.
The detail almost everyone drops is that the original intervals were at roughly 170 percent of VO2 max. That is genuinely all out, not brisk. A Tabata done at a comfortable pace is just a four minute workout, which is fine, but it is not the protocol and will not produce the result from the study.
The standard is your lowest round, not your total. Count reps in each of the eight intervals and take the smallest number. Scoring this way punishes exactly the mistake the protocol is designed to expose: sandbagging early rounds to protect a big total.
Movements that work well: air squats, burpees, row calories, push-ups, sit-ups. Movements that do not: anything technical enough to be dangerous under fatigue, and anything so heavy that 20 seconds gets you three reps.
One limit worth knowing before you start: a browser tab cannot make sound once your phone locks or you switch apps, because browsers suspend background tabs to save battery. For a workout where the phone sits in your pocket or face down on the floor, use the app instead. It keeps the clock and the beeps running with the screen off.
Four minutes exactly: eight rounds of 20 seconds work plus 10 seconds rest, including the final rest interval. This timer includes that last rest so the clock reads a true 4:00.
You can, and the rounds are adjustable here, but past eight it stops being the Tabata protocol and becomes general interval work. If you want more volume, run several four minute Tabatas with a full rest between them.
It is efficient conditioning, not a magic protocol. Four minutes burns roughly four minutes worth of calories. The value is the cardiovascular adaptation per minute invested, which is genuinely high.
Browsers suspend background tabs, so a web timer goes quiet the moment you switch apps. The Personal Records app keeps the clock and the beeps running with your phone in your pocket.
Free on iOS and Android. No account needed to start.