radialtimers.com
Twenty seconds of full effort, ten of rest, eight rounds, four minutes start to finish. During work the dial sheds a ring every second, so a mid-round glance tells you exactly what is left, and the chime at each change does the counting for you.
Tabata training takes its name from Izumi Tabata, whose 1996 study with speed skaters compared a short, very intense interval protocol with steady moderate work. The interval version was 20 seconds of effort at a very high intensity, 10 seconds of rest, eight times, roughly four minutes. This page runs exactly that split: eight rounds, a chime at every change, and the cycle finishing on the eighth work block, so the clock reads 3 minutes 50 seconds because no rest follows the final effort. During work a ring falls every second, which makes the last five seconds of a round impossible to miss.
The original work was done on bikes at intensities most people cannot hold. A useful home version keeps the shape and asks for the hardest effort you can repeat eight times: the first two rounds should feel like you could do more, and by round six you should be wondering how. Pick moves that let you go all out without technique falling apart: bike, rower, sprints, squat jumps, burpees, kettlebell swings, skipping.
Doing "Tabata" at a moderate pace for four minutes is just a short workout with an awkward rhythm; the protocol only means something at high effort. Doing it every day is the opposite error: this is a two or three times a week thing with recovery between. Skipping the warm-up before maximal sprints invites a pulled muscle. And do not stack five of them into a class because the name sounds impressive; twenty minutes at that intensity is not a thing anyone sustains.
If 20/10 is too brutal today, the 30/10 HIIT split keeps the intensity high with a slightly longer work window to settle into, and the 45/15 interval timer suits circuits with equipment changes. Any other pair of numbers takes a moment in Cycles. See interval and HIIT timing for choosing between splits.
Yes. Twenty seconds of work, ten of rest, eight rounds, the 20/10 split from the 1996 study led by Izumi Tabata.
Yes. Each rest begins the moment work ends, and the next round follows it, with a chime at every change.
Add it as a browser source in OBS; the background stays transparent. Change t for any length.
A radial timer is a free online countdown timer you set in one click: pick a length, press Start, and an alarm sounds at zero. Run several timers at once, take one fullscreen, or pop one out picture-in-picture to float over other apps. Every timer keeps counting in a background tab, and any timer exports as a video. No download, no sign-up.
Its dial draws the countdown as 20 concentric rings, one for each twentieth of the duration. Rings empty one by one, outermost first, so a glance shows how far along you are without reading a digit.
Yes. The countdown follows the clock, so it stays on time while you work in another tab and still chimes at zero. The picture-in-picture popout keeps a small dial in view the whole way.
Yes. Any timer exports as an MP4 or a transparent WebM of the whole countdown, up to 4K and 60 fps, in 16:9, vertical, or square.
Yes. In OBS, add a browser source pointing at radialtimers.com/overlay?t=25m and a transparent dial counts down over your scene. Change t for any length, like 90s or 3h.
As many as you need. Each timer gets its own dial and runs on its own, which suits interval workouts, several dishes on the stove, or a room of activity stations.