Free Round Timer

One timer for the ring, the mat and the gym floor

Round training is the oldest interval system in sport. Boxers have always trained the way they fight — three minutes of work, one minute on the stool, repeated for the length of a bout — because fitness is specific: if the contest comes in rounds, the preparation should too. This timer reproduces that structure for anything: heavy-bag sessions, pad work, sparring, five-minute MMA championship rounds, kickboxing, or a garage circuit where the "rounds" are just stations. Set it once and coach with your hands free — the beeps run the clock so you don't have to.

HIIT and circuit classes

High-intensity interval training is the same idea with shorter numbers. A classic 40/20 — forty seconds of work, twenty of rest, ten rounds — packs a complete session into ten minutes and maps perfectly onto circuit stations: everyone moves on the work beep, recovers and rotates on the rest beep. The 3-2-1 warning ticks at the end of each phase let a whole class finish their rep instead of being cut off mid-burpee.

What Tabata actually is

Tabata is not a synonym for HIIT — it is one specific protocol from Dr. Izumi Tabata's 1996 study of Olympic speed skaters: twenty seconds of genuinely all-out effort, ten seconds of rest, repeated eight times. Four minutes total. The famous results came from the intensity, not the format, so if you can talk during the work interval it isn't Tabata yet. The preset above is the real 20/10 × 8.

Why work/rest ratios matter

The ratio between work and rest decides what you train. Long rests relative to work let you repeat near-maximal efforts at full quality — sprint and power sessions. Equal ratios sit in the hard-but-repeatable middle where most conditioning lives. Short rests, like boxing's 3:1 work-to-rest, teach you to keep performing while fatigued — which is the actual sporting demand. Change one number at a time: shorten the rest before you lengthen the work.

Put it on the gym TV

Tap 📺 Fullscreen and the countdown fills the screen — big enough to read from the far side of the weights floor, with the round and phase above it. AirPlay or cast the browser tab to the gym TV, tap anywhere on the display to start or pause, and the colour change between WORK and REST is visible even when the beeps aren't audible over the music.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a boxing round?

Three minutes of work with a one-minute rest — the standard since the Queensberry rules. Professional bouts run 4 to 12 rounds, amateur (Olympic-style) boxing uses three 3-minute rounds, and many women's championship bouts have used ten 2-minute rounds. The Boxing preset here is 3:00 work / 1:00 rest for 12 rounds.

What is the Tabata protocol?

Eight rounds of twenty seconds of all-out effort with ten seconds of rest — four minutes in total. It comes from Dr. Izumi Tabata's 1996 study of Olympic speed skaters, where that exact 20/10 × 8 protocol improved both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Anything gentler than maximal effort is interval training, not Tabata.

Why does the sound only start after I press Start?

Browsers block every page from playing audio until you interact with it — an autoplay rule that stops sites blaring sound as they load. This timer creates its sound engine inside your Start tap, which counts as that interaction, so every beep after it is allowed. If it is still silent, check the Sound cues box and your phone's mute switch.

Does the timer stay accurate in a background tab?

Yes. The countdown is derived from clock timestamps, not from counting ticks, so it cannot drift. A background tab only slows down how often the display repaints — the moment you come back, the timer recomputes exactly how much time has passed, and if a whole phase ended while you were away it advances to the correct round and phase.