Timers & countdowns
Interval & Tabata timer
Run work-and-rest rounds without watching the clock. Dial in prep, work, rest, and rounds — or tap a preset — and let the beeps and chimes pace your session.
How to use the interval & tabata timer
Set work and rest
Choose the length of each work period and each recovery period. Tabata is the well-known preset: twenty seconds on, ten seconds off.
Choose the number of rounds
Set how many work-and-rest cycles to run. Classic Tabata is eight rounds, giving a four-minute block.
Turn the cues on
Audio cues mark every transition so you never have to look at the screen mid-effort.
Run it
The timer counts each phase and moves on automatically, tracking which round you are in until the set is done.
Interval training and the Tabata protocol
Interval work alternates hard effort with incomplete recovery. The recovery being incomplete is the point: starting the next effort before you are fully rested keeps the cardiovascular system loaded in a way steady-state work does not, which is why intervals produce disproportionate results for the time spent.
The Tabata protocol is specific and frequently misquoted. Izumi Tabata's 1996 study used twenty seconds of work at roughly 170% of VO2 max, ten seconds of rest, eight rounds — four minutes total. The intensity is the essential part. Four minutes of moderate effort in a 20/10 pattern is a perfectly reasonable workout but it is not Tabata, and it will not produce the results the study reported.
The general form is more useful day to day. Longer work periods with equal or longer rest build aerobic capacity; short, very hard efforts with brief rest build anaerobic capacity and tolerance for lactate. Both belong in a program, and the ratio is the dial you adjust.
The reason a dedicated timer helps is that watching a clock costs attention you need for the effort, and counting rounds while breathing hard is unreliable. Audio cues let you keep your eyes and your head on the work.
When you'd reach for it
HIIT sessions
Run structured work-and-rest rounds without watching the screen.
Circuit training
Time stations and transitions for a whole circuit.
Boxing and martial arts
Standard three-minute rounds with a one-minute break between them.
Physiotherapy exercises
Hold-and-release patterns timed consistently through a set.
Focus sprints
The same structure applied to work rather than exercise.
Language drills
Timed recall rounds with fixed pauses between them.
Questions & answers
- What is Tabata?
- A high-intensity interval format of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest, repeated for 8 rounds — about four minutes. It's built in as a one-tap preset.
- Can I build my own intervals?
- Yes. Set the prep countdown, work seconds, rest seconds, and number of rounds. Presets for Tabata, HIIT 45/15, and a longer circuit get you started.
- Does it cue me before each change?
- Short beeps count down the final three seconds of every interval, and a chime marks each transition and the finish.