Tabata Steps & Plank is a free beginner-level TABATA workout lasting about 12 min. It uses Box Step-ups and Plank Hold, needs no equipment, and can be scaled up or down for any fitness level.
Run this on a real TABATA timer with audio cues — free in the iOS app.
Get the appDrive through the heel on step-ups; keep glutes active. Maintain solid plank lines.
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Get the iOS AppThis is a Tabata session: 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, eight times through for a four-minute block. The protocol comes from a 1996 study by Dr. Izumi Tabata and colleagues on Japanese Olympic speed skaters, and the intervals are meant to be genuinely maximal rather than merely brisk.
Count your reps in the first round and treat that number as the target for all eight. The conventional score is your lowest round, which is a deliberate check on going out too hard. If round eight is less than half of round one, you started too fast.
This session is built for people newer to interval training: the movements are low-skill and the volume is manageable, so your form should still hold up in the final round. That does not make it easy — intensity is relative — but it does make it safe to run unsupervised. Finish feeling like you had one more round in you.
Scaling is how this workout stays useful across a range of abilities. Pick the version of each movement that lets you keep moving at a steady pace, and note what you changed so the next attempt is a fair comparison.
Box Step-ups — easier: use a lower step. Harder: drive the trailing knee up at the top, or jump instead.
Plank Hold — easier: drop to your forearms and knees. Harder: lift one foot, or add shoulder taps.
No weights are needed for this workout — but you will want a box, bench, stair or low wall to step or jump onto.
Every box movement here also works as a step-up, so height is flexible. If you have nothing suitable to step onto, tuck jumps are a reasonable substitute.
Warm up before you start the clock. Five to ten minutes of easy movement plus a few light reps of each movement in the workout is enough, and it matters more on short, intense sessions than on long ones.