Coaches Tabata workout for gymnastics.

[Aero]

I've been reading up on Tabata training, and it sounds like it would be great for gymnastics. The workouts are quick and effective, which could potentially save on some time during practice. I've been thinking I could get more done during each practice if the conditioning time was reduced. Tabata training seems to be a good way to do that without sacrificing the quality of the conditioning.

For those of you who don't know what Tabata training is, it is a type of HIIT workout (High Intensity Interval Training), and consists of 20 seconds of non-stop reps of an exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This is repeated for 8 sets, which totals 4 minutes. Then, the next exercise is started, and is repeated through 8 sets for 4 minutes, and so on. A one minute rest is taken before switching to the next exercise. It is apparently very intense and very tiring, but is supposed to really have great results, especially for the short amount of time it takes. It is good for muscular endurance, too.

Has anybody tried this personally? Either themselves, or their athletes? Any opinions on this idea? I think it is important to have a diverse conditioning program that gets the girls strong in many ways, and this seems like it will save us valuable practice time, too. What do you guys think?

 

[Jenny]

I don't know anything about it but remember strengthening is speed and motion specific. So if it is all fast reps you get good at doing fast reps. It sounds like another good tool to add to the conditioning mix. And sounds like the kind of thing the kids will enjoy the challenge of now and again.

 

[wordsmith]

Has anybody tried this personally? Either themselves, or their athletes? Any opinions on this idea?

I have- to one degree or another. This, and interval training.

I have a cd with different tabata music; and at my old gym, I put together different motivational cds compiled of song clips- used buzzers to signal the end of a round and the beginning of the next. 10 sec breaks had a motivational quote in between the rounds. The cds were based upon 20 sec rounds, 45 sec rounds, 60 sec rounds and accounted for how much time we had for conditioning and how many gymnasts.

Nowadays I do something similar using an app called "(PushPress) Timer" where you can set the length of worktime, the amount of rest time, the number of rounds, number of cycles. It also has different options like tabata, AMRAP, and stopwatch. It has the voices of motivational crossfit trainers that you can choose (the kids love the one with an Australian trainer who- on one setting- halfway through tells them something motivational about "keep going- pretend like kangaroos are chasing you"- something like that).

I have a wireless speaker connected to my phone so everyone in proximity can hear. The downside with this specific app is that it is sensitive to crashing now and then.

What I love about doing conditioning with a timer is that it just keeps everyone moving. And of course that is the case when you have choreographed warm-ups or conditioning to music. No time to waste. You have to keep up.

I use it for strap bar rotation as well (and sometimes on bars). A group of about 5-10 kids, I will give them about 2 minutes with 20 sec rest period to rotate, get themselves strapped in and start working. They learn to get in the straps quicker because if they don't move fast, they get less time on the bar (we have 3 strap bars). With 3 kids in straps, the other 2-7 are on conditioning (they all are given a number and follow each other in order) assignments with specific stations, in order that cycles its way back around to the first strap bar station (we have one high bar strap bar; and a second bar that is set low with two sets of pvc pipes for two gymnasts to be on straps at once).