Free · 20/10 × 8 preloaded · loud cues
Tabata timer
The genuine protocol: 20 seconds all-out, 10 seconds rest, 8 rounds, four minutes total, preloaded and ready. Press start, and the display and chimes handle the counting.
Describe the session, get the structure
Pro turns constraints into a work/rest/round structure and loads it straight into this timer. Say how long you have, what you have, and what you cannot do.
Example · “20 minutes, no equipment, quiet enough for an upstairs flat”
Quiet flat circuit
40s on · 20s off · 20 rounds≈ 20 min
- Squat to chair
- Incline press-up
- Reverse lunge
- Dead bug
- Glute bridge
Twenty rounds of 40 on, 20 off is 20 minutes exactly. Every move stays on the floor, so nothing thuds through to the flat below.
Form on the lunges is the first thing to go once you are tired — drop to a shorter range rather than pushing through.
Is Tabata really only four minutes?
The protocol is, and that is the whole claim: twenty seconds of work, ten of rest, eight rounds, four minutes. What gets left out is that the original study had trained athletes working at around 170 percent of their aerobic capacity, which is an effort most people have never produced and would not want to repeat twice a week. Four minutes at a pace you can sustain is a warm-up wearing the name.
That is not an argument against doing it. It is an argument for being honest about which one you are doing, because a comfortable 20/10 will not produce the results the four-minute headline is selling.
What exercises work for Tabata?
Anything you can go genuinely flat out at without form falling apart when tired, which rules out most technical lifts. Squats, burpees, bike or rower sprints, kettlebell swings and mountain climbers all qualify. Either hold one movement across all eight rounds or alternate two; rotating through eight different exercises turns it into a circuit, which is a fine session but a different one.
How many rounds should I do?
Eight, if you are doing Tabata. Beyond that the intensity that defines the protocol is not sustainable and you have drifted into general interval work, which is what the interval timer is for. Stacking two or three four-minute blocks with a few minutes between them is the usual way to build a longer session without diluting each one.
Can I see how many rounds are left?
The rounds show as a row of dots under the clock: filled behind you, a widened bar for the round you are in coloured by whether it is work or rest, and empty ahead. Mid-set and out of breath, that is readable from across a room in a way that “round 3 of 8” is not.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Tabata protocol exactly?
- 8 rounds of 20 seconds maximum-effort work and 10 seconds rest — 4 minutes total. It comes from Dr. Izumi Tabata's 1996 study on Olympic speed-skaters, which compared the protocol against 60 minutes of moderate cardio.
- Is 4 minutes really enough?
- The original study found the interval group improved both aerobic and anaerobic capacity, while the steady-state group improved only aerobic. The catch: the protocol assumes genuinely maximal effort in every work window, which is much harder than it sounds.
- Can I change the work and rest lengths?
- Yes — the fields below the presets accept custom values, which technically makes it an interval timer rather than a Tabata. The 20/10 × 8 preset is the protocol as published.
- How should a beginner start?
- Pick a single simple movement (bike sprints, squats, burpees), do 4 rounds instead of 8, and keep the rest honest. Add rounds as capacity builds rather than diluting the work intensity.