a workout you have time for

Who can fit in a one-hour workout multiple times a week anymore? Certainly not busy parents, nine-tofivers or pretty much anyone else with a life and a never-ending to-do list. Sometimes what you want is a fitness regimen that will get ’er done in the brief time slot your schedule allows. Then it may be time for Tabata, a four-minute round that’s designed to get your heart rate up and improve how efficiently your body uses oxygen while you’re training.

Initially developed by the head coach of the Japanese Olympic speed skating team in 1996, this workout gets its name from Izumi Tabata, a sports scientist who studied the protocol and found that it yielded greater gains in cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance than a 60-minute, moderate-intensity pedaling session. Tabata falls under the umbrella of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and is, strictly speaking, just four minutes of intense exercise in which 20-second intervals of 100 percent effort are followed by 10-second intervals of rest. You’ll do this for a total of eight times to complete the round. And if you have time and feel ambitious, do five or six rounds.

The idea is that you’re rapidly raising your heart rate and giving your body a small window of recovery, which helps it burn more calories during and after your workout. What you’re striving for here is the “anaerobic heart-rate zone,” or from 80 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate. When you hit this level of cardio activity, your body can’t get enough oxygen to fuel muscles, so it turns to the glucose found in carbs instead. Your metabolism and heart rate increase instantly, which means Tabata is a great option for both weight loss and muscle gain.

Many exercises in a Tabata workout overlap with your standard HIIT moves; think along the lines of burpees, reverse lunges, jumping jacks, jump squats or a fast pedal on the exercise bike. Pick a combination of moves that works for you, and make sure the ones you choose are not more than you can handle. Always engage in a quick dynamic warmup before diving into the workout too to limit your risk of injury and get the blood flowing.

Where to do a Tabata? You can possibly expect an occasional Tabata run during a total body class at your local gym, visit a Tabata-only studio such as Tabata Ultimate Fitness in Brooklyn, New York, or Tread Tabata in Ohio and Massachusetts, or download an app (see “Tabata at Home,” below) that can guide you through the exercise at home.

Tabata can work for folks of all fitness levels, but beginners should be forewarned that it just might wipe them out. Workout newbies may wish to start a new regimen with a standard HIIT routine instead to build up endurance and practice form before diving into this super-intense format. Still, you don’t need any equipment (though a kettle ball, weights or a jump rope can do wonders). Though the original Tabata workout was on an exercise bike, you can do Tabata sans stuff, as long as you follow the “20 seconds on, 10 seconds off” rule. That’s its defining characteristic.

Experts advise capping your Tabata workouts (or any HIIT workout, for that matter) at two to three times per week so that your muscles have enough time to recover between sessions. You’ll see results fastest if you do resistance training or weight training on alternating days.

Tabata at home

If you want an effective workout that doesn’t require much equipment (or much time), download any of these Tabata apps, which have timers that help you keep track of the “20 minutes on, 10 minutes off” routine:

• Seconds (free), which isn’t Tabata-specific but has an interval training timer that dings when you hit your time.

• Tabata Pro ($3.99 on iPhone, $4.99 on Android), which has a split screen that can be viewed on a TV and timers for regular HIIT workouts in addition to Tabata.

• Seconds Pro Interval Timer ($4.99), which has interchangeable, color-coded intervals and music that follows the intensity of your workout.

• Tabata Timer ($1.99 per month or $9.99 for a lifetime subscription), which has an easy-to-navigate roundsand-rest interval tracker, as well as the ability to play customized background music.

• SmartWOD Timer ($1.99 per month or $12.49 per year), which helps keep time and allows you to take notes on your workouts to track your progress.

• Tabata Stopwatch Pro ($19.99), which lets you customize your sets, warmups, exercises and more.