The One-Minute Workout

High intensity interval training (HIIT) presents a time-efficient alternative to traditional endurance training.

Public health guidelines recommend about 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. Traditional endurance training involves running, biking, swimming or engaging in another form of exercise at a steady pace for 3o minutes or more at a time. Most people find the time commitment overwhelming, and many decide not even to try working out. As an alternative, high intensity interval training (HIIT) involves short bursts of high-effort exercise interspersed between longer bouts of moderate or low-intensity exercise.

Practitioners of both types of exercise experience improved arterial health and VO_2max – which helps develop a better molecular makeup of muscles – but the HIIT approach takes less time. 

HIIT involves engaging in short bursts of vigorous exercise throughout a workout. Very intense intervals are more efficient.

The short bursts of high intensity exercise, or HIIT “sprints” might mean running, rowing, biking, stair-climbing or doing body-weight exercises like burpees...