#12: Tabata Ultimate Fitness

ta·bat·a // noun //

“A version of HIIT based on a 1996 study^[1] by Ritsumeikan University Professor Izumi Tabata (田畑泉) et al. initially involving Olympic speedskaters. The study used 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO₂max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). The exercise was performed on a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. Tabata called this the IE1 protocol.^[17] In the original study, athletes using this method trained 4 times per week, plus another day of steady-state training, for 6 weeks and obtained gains similar to a group of athletes who did steady state training (70% VO₂max) 5 times per week. The steady-state group had a higher VO₂max at the end (from 52 to 57 mL/(kg•min)). However, the Tabata group had achieved comparable aerobic improvements but only exercised 4 minutes per day on their 4 HIIT days compared to 60 minutes for the aerobic group. The Tabata group also started lower and gained more overall (from 48 to 55 mL/(kg•min)). Also, only the Tabata group had gained anaerobic capacity benefits.”

One night at a bar a friend invited her friend, an eligible bachelor, to meet us for drinks. It took us about 0.5 seconds to discover that we were both runners and generally fitness freaks, and soon we were boring my friend to tears with topics such as “[solidcore]” and “Barry’s Bootcamp”, the latter of which he called “too easy”. So when he said that Tabata Ultimate Fitness, a HIIT gym in my local Crown Heights, was the hardest class he’d been to in the city thus far, I whipped out my phone and signed up for an 8:15 AM class the next day. Ever the glutton for punishment.

When I strolled up to their one-and-only location the authenticity snob in me was immediately won over. It’s just a large rectangular warehouse—there isn’t even a front door, just a giant plastic mesh curtain. Gym mats line the floor of the room, and there are about a dozen stations on one long wall, each with a box jump and a pullup bar and a heavy bag, and a mirror on the opposite wall. On the far end of the room is a heap of medicine balls, several racks of dumbbells, kettlebells, and one single-stall bathroom. No frills, just fitness, the way god intended. (They don’t have a water fountain though, so make sure you bring a full bottle unless you want to buy a small Poland Spring from the mini fridge by the check-in desk).

An incredibly jacked woman (cool) led the class, walking us through a quick warm-up, stretches, and then a short glutes circuit before hitting the three main circuits of the class—each comprised of three exercises, each circuit completed three times before moving on to the next. Each exercise was performed for 50 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest/setup for the next exercise after. Then we closed out with two minutes of sit-ups.

The music was notably good, with Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” playing in the minutes leading up to class, (ring the Good Taste Alarm), and then appropriately transitioning to a set of fast-paced R&B and pop remixes that I thoroughly enjoyed moving my body to.

The class was about twenty people and a pretty impressive range of ages and fitness levels. And, at this random HIIT gym on a Wednesday morning, I am pleased to report I had my first celebrity encounter of the “Year I Sweat New York” saga. Drum rollllllllllllllll—it was none other than the guy who plays Chidi in the sitcom The Good Place, actor and playwright William Harper Jackson. I immediately took this as a glowing endorsement—if fit, attractive actors are going to this place then it must be good.

Throughout the session, I couldn’t help but steal glances at the famous person in the room, and at one point he caught me looking (I am, and always have been, incredibly unsubtle with the staring). I quickly looked away and wiped the sweat off my face with my shirt, to which he also lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat off of his face—which, according to Seventeen magazine articles circa the early 2000s (still rotting a hole in my brain) is textbook body language mirroring—definitive proof that he likes me back.

A quick internet search after class, “william.harper jackson gorlfriendt”, (my fingers were sweaty) revealed that he is indeed taken and has been with his gf since they met on a stage production of Romeo and Juliet in 2012. Oh well.

As for the workout class, it was really fun and sufficiently hard and flew by. I love that about tabata-inspired or other shorter work-duration HIIT classes—they move so quickly. The moves themselves were a fun mix of the greatest hits you know and love/hate (side planks, medicine ball slams, burpees, push-ups, etc) and some fun variations I’ve never encountered before like banded donkey kicks with a dumbbell tucked in your knee-pit, and mountain climbers done with your toes up on a box-jump-box.

I’ve since been back with a different instructor, who was hilarious and played such good, high-energy hip hop (and he kept randomly yelling “Tabata!”, and at one point after he said it mumbled to himself “damn I really like that word”). At the beginning of that class he gave us two options: start with a five-minute ab series or a three-minute ab series. We chose five, to get the long one over with, falling right into his trap because after doing five minutes of sit-ups and bicycles and leg raises he announced it was time for the three-minute ab series: three straight minutes of plank. I was shaking and sweating and laughing at the absurdity of it all. Three-minute planks aside, the classes are not too difficult that you can’t attempt them at any fitness level and it’s classic, good clean HIIT. And it’s not prohibitively expensive, unlike damn near every other workout class in this city. 10/10 recommend. Tabata!