I've updated my article Timers for Tabata Intervals (formerly titled "Timex Watches for Tabata Interval Timing") to include a review of the Gymboss workout timer. Short version? It's fantastic.

I recently described Tabata intervals in detail. I'm going to recommend timers for timing these intervals, but let me recap how the intervals work real quick-like. First, pick an exercise or a cardio machine (these are particularly brutal on rowing machines). After you're warmed up, go 20 seconds as hard as you can, then 10 seconds as slow as you want (or stop, if you're doing something that doesn't lend itself to slow-paced recovery, like burpees). Repeat that eight times. The resulting four minutes is a Tabata set of intervals. So:

20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest
20 sec. as hard as you can, 10 sec. rest

Done. I guarantee, 20 seconds has never felt so long, 10 seconds never so short, and four minutes never so painful.

But given how wrecked you're going to feel at about 90 seconds in (just tried these with sprints today - ouch), who wants to be counting "one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand..." in your head as you pray for 20 seconds to end? Happily, the good folks at Gymboss make an inexpensive timer expressly for this purpose. Mine came in the mail after just a couple days, and it's perfect. It's twenty bucks, is about the size of a small pager, has just three buttons and is very simple to set up, and is configurable to just about any workout via these options:

• You can set it to countdown once, and then repeat each time you press a button, or set it to automatically repeat without pressing anything.
• You can set a single interval to repeat, or dual intervals of different lengths (so you can set a work interval, and a rest interval of a different time).
• Intervals can be set down to the second.
• The alarm can be either a soft beep, a loud beep, a vibration, or any combination of beeping and vibrating.
• The alarm can further be set to go off for one second or ten seconds.

Furthermore, in "repeat" mode the timer will tell you how many intervals you've completed! There's nothing like the right tool for the job, and this is the right tool.

Or, if you want something more general-purpose, some Timex watches are also excellent for timing Tabatas, and they're pretty cheap. I'd link to a specific model, but I got mine at Campmor, and different models keep coming in and out of stock. Here is their full selection. What you're looking for is a watch in the $20 to $30 range, with a "24-hour coundown timer" that does "countdown/stop (CS), countdown/repeat (CR), and countdown/auto-start chrono(CC)." Actually, what we're really interested in is countdown/repeat, but that's how my watch was described, so I think that will get you the same feature. Or you can just try watches in a store. The Timex Ironman watches tend to have this feature, but not always. They are still good ones to start with as you're looking to narrow the field.

When you get your watch, set it to "timer" mode, and then set up a 30-second CR interval. The thing that makes the Timex watch perfect is that it chimes for 10 seconds after each interval ends, but the clock keeps ticking! So this means you rest while the watch is beeping (10 seconds), and crank when the watch is silent (20 seconds). The only thing you have to count is how many work cycles you've done.

(you can also just set the watch to beep every 10 seconds and go for two beeps during the "work" phase, but for me this beep is too quiet, especially if I'm on the rower or jump rope.)

As for comparing the two, the Gymboss has a clip (like on a pager), while the Timex watches have wristbands (obviously). The Timex does everything a watch should do, while the Gymboss just does this one job very, very well. For me, the big things that make the Gymboss better are these:

• The alarm is louder (or you can opt for vibrate mode if you don't want to disturb others in the gym). I just tried a quick test, setting it for one-second loud-beep and vibrate. I clipped it to my belt (wearing jeans) and hopped on the C2 rower. Turned the music on loud enough to hear over the C2's fan. You could feel the vibration, but it was a big faint (might be better through shorts). The beep was clearly audible though. If you like your music louder it might drown out the beep, but you can always increase the beep/vibration to 10 seconds, which I imagine would be hard to ignore. Not sure what that does to battery life though (it takes one AAA).
• It counts elapsed intervals.
• You can set any dual interval times you want, wereas the Timex only fortuitously handles 20s work/10s rest.

I'm keeping my Timex for telling the time, but for exercising it's the Gymboss all the way.