Training Guides
The reference material behind the timers: what work-to-rest ratios actually change, what the Tabata study really ran, how long a round lasts in every combat sport, and how long to rest between sets.
Start Here
Four long-form guides. Each one answers a question the timer itself cannot: not how do I start the clock, but which numbers should be on it.
Work-to-Rest Ratios Explained
Why the relationship between work and rest decides what a session trains, what each ratio is for, and how to progress one without changing everything at once.
Interval training · 11 min read
Read the guide →The Tabata Protocol, and What Gyms Call Tabata
What the 1996 study actually ran, what it found, and why a 20/10 burpee block shares its stopwatch but not its intensity.
Interval training · 9 min read
Read the guide →Round Lengths in Combat Sports
Competition round and rest times across nine disciplines, from professional boxing to IBJJF belt divisions, and how to turn them into training rounds.
Combat sports · 10 min read
Read the guide →How Long to Rest Between Sets
What is actually recovering during a rest period, how long each training goal needs, and why the old sixty-second rule cost people work.
Strength training · 10 min read
Read the guide →What These Guides Are For
A timer answers a small question well: how long is left. It says nothing about the question that comes first — why forty seconds of work and twenty of rest, rather than thirty and thirty, or twenty and forty. That choice changes what the session trains far more than the exercises you pick, and it is almost never explained.
These guides exist to close that gap. They are reference pages, written to be read once and then consulted: what each work-to-rest ratio biases the session towards, how the Tabata protocol was actually run and why the gym version behaves differently, what round and rest lengths the combat sports federations publish, and how much recovery between sets a given training goal needs.
They are deliberately specific. Where there is a number, it comes from a rulebook or a published study, and the source is named on the page. Where there is genuine disagreement, or where federations differ, the guide says so instead of picking a figure and stating it flatly. If a rule changes and we have not caught it, tell us — the date on each page is the date it was last checked.
Find the Guide by Question
| If you are asking | Read |
|---|---|
| How long should my intervals be? | Work-to-Rest Ratios Explained |
| Is my Tabata a real Tabata? | The Tabata Protocol |
| How long is a round in my sport? | Round Lengths in Combat Sports |
| How long should I rest between sets? | How Long to Rest Between Sets |
| Which timer page should I open? | All Workout Timers |
Who Writes Them
Every guide on this site is written and maintained by Hugo Dufour, the independent developer who builds and publishes Workout Timer Online. There is no editorial team: one person researches the rulebooks, writes the pages, and answers when a reader says a number looks wrong. More on that, and on how the site is funded, on the about page.
These pages describe how training formats are structured. They are not medical advice and not a personal programme. If you have a condition, an injury or a long layoff behind you, talk to a doctor or a coach before starting high-intensity work.
Then Put It on the Clock
Once you know the numbers you want, the timer takes about five seconds to set.
Open the Workout Timer