It’s not easy to fit a few hours of fitness routine into a busy schedule. If you have just a spare 20 minutes per day, it doesn’t mean that you can’t hit your fitness goals. Certain shorter workouts may deliver the same or even superior benefits. And more importantly, they will help you build a fitness habit that lasts.
Any workout counts
General recommendations from medical and sports authorities suggest 150 minutes of physical activity at a moderate pace per week. Vigorous exercises, such as high-intensity intervals, lifting weights, or boxing, reduce the recommended training time to 75 minutes per week. Previously, the World Health Organization suggested that a minimum exercise session should be at least 10 minutes long to produce some effect. Recent research shows that even shorter workouts can be as effective. In reality, even micro-workouts of several minutes like climbing the stairs or carrying groceries add up to the total physical activity recommended and can significantly reduce mortality risk in the long term.
A 20-minute training is more than enough to be an effective workout. And if you opt for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), it may bring you even more benefits than traditional training. HIIT workouts will burn calories, give you a mental boost, and improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Workout frequency is more important than workout duration
Recent research indicates that shorter, more frequent workouts can be more beneficial for weight loss and muscle gain than longer workouts of the same volume and intensity. Shorter workouts are enough to elevate your metabolism, increase lean muscle mass, and, as a result, help you burn more calories at rest. Such workouts are less exhausting and are easier to commit to in the long term.
Japanese research studied 3 groups of participants performing an arm resistance exercise over the course of 4 weeks: group 1 performed 30 contractions per week split into 5 bouts (6 per day), group 2 performed 30 contractions in one bout, and group 3 performed just 6 contractions once a week. After 4 weeks, the 2nd and 3rd groups didn’t show any increase in muscle strength while group 1, doing 6 contractions a day over 5 days a week, saw more than 10% growth in muscle strength.
Research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that a 30-minute daily workout may be the same or more effective for weight loss than a 60-minute one, based on intensity. During the study, 30 overweight Danish men exercised for an hour a day, while the second group only trained for 30 minutes. Surprisingly, the second group lost more weight than the first one—3.6 kilos in three months vs. 2.7 kg.
Another benefit of frequent workouts is that you can make the most out of the immediate positive effects of the exercise such as improved mood and increased cognitive ability. After doing a 20-minute moderate-intensity treadmill exercise at a 60% heart rate, participants showed a better performance on the academic achievement test than the control group.
Benefits of HIIT workouts
High-intensity interval training is the most effective type of training that allows you to achieve benefits similar to regular training in a much shorter time. 20 minutes is a perfect duration for a HIIT workout because most people are quite capable of pushing themselves to maximum effort during this period.
HIIT workouts boost metabolic rate
If your goal is fat loss, you will burn more calories during 3x 20-minute HIIT workouts than during a 1-hour regular training per week. HIIT creates an “oxygen debt” and increases your metabolism—your body continues to burn calories for hours after a short training.
Improve your heart health
HIIT training is most effective to strengthen your heart and improve cardiovascular fitness. During intense bursts of exercise, you work out at 85-90% of your maximum heart rate training your heart muscle and improving blood oxygen delivery. A 2013 study found that HIIT workouts improve VO2max faster than continuous aerobic exercise.
REHIT training on CAROL Bike is HIIT taken to the next level. It’s considered as the shortest, most effective workout, with a session only lasting 5 minutes. Studies show that doing a REHIT ride, 3x a week, can improve your VO2max—the key cardiovascular indicator—by 12% in just 8 weeks.
Reduce stress
HIIT workouts reduce cortisol levels and lead to the release of endorphins that improve your mood. They are scientifically proven to be effective in depression treatment and improving mental health. Exercise with a smaller weekly volume is easier to comply with and creates greater effect in the long term.
Increase longevity
HIIT combats age-related processes in cells, increasing the number of mitochondria and improving their function. HIIT workouts stimulate the production of human growth hormone (HGH), which naturally diminishes with age. HGH plays a crucial role in cell activity and collagen production, leading to improved tissue regeneration and a visible reduction in aging signs. A study of 1567 Norwegian seniors revealed that the HIIT program increased their lifespan more than a moderate-intensity training program (1.7% against 1.2%).
Doing REHIT on CAROL Bike, 3x a week, can improve your VO2max—the key cardiovascular indicator—by 12% in just 8 weeks.
6 best HIIT cycling workouts under 20 minutes
HIIT cycling workouts are among the most beginner-friendly and easy to get started with. It is much easier to perform HIIT during indoor cycling since most exercise bikes provide you with a selection of programmed workouts.
During a HIIT cycling workout, you will have to increase and decrease resistance levels at the end of each interval or an advanced exercise bike will automatically do this for you.
1. The easiest 30x30 workout
This is the simplest HIIT cycling workout that will suit people of any fitness level. In this workout, you alternate intense cycling and rest periods of the same length.
- Warm-up: 5 mins of easy pedaling
- 30 sec: pedaling at high resistance
- 30 sec: pedaling at low resistance
- Repeat intervals 10x
Cool down: 5 mins of easy pedaling.
2. Short sprints for fat burning
This is an intense HIIT cycling workout for advanced cyclists that consists of intense sprints in short intervals. During this HIIT training, you will gradually raise the intensity of your sprints in a series of 5 rounds. Similar to REHIT, this workout is very effective in increasing muscular endurance, raising metabolic rate, and burning fat.
- Warm-up: 6 mins of easy pedaling starting at 2/10 level and finishing at 7/10
- 1 min sprint at 8/10 (80 rpm)
- 1 min sprint at 8/10 (80 rpm)
- 2 mins recovery at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- 10-sec sprint at 10/10 (110 rpm)
- 50-sec recovery at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- Repeat 5x intervals (110 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 9/10 (110 rpm)
- 1 min 30 sec cool down at 2/10 (80 rpm)
2. Intense sprint intervals
In this 20-minute sprint interval training, you will alternate different interval durations and intensity levels. You will start with shorter sprints gradually increasing their length and duration to finish with a short all-out effort.
- Warm-up: 5 mins of easy pedaling slowly raising your level of perceived exertion from 2/10 to 5/10 (80 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 7/10 effort (100 rpm)
- 1 min rest at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 8/10 (100 rpm)
- 1 min rest at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 9/10 (100 rpm)
- 1 min rest at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- 2-min interval at 5/10 (80 rpm)
- 2-min interval at 6/10 (80 rpm)
- 2-min interval at 9/10 (100 rpm)
- 1-min interval at 2/10 (80 rpm)
- 3-min at 7/10 (100 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 9/10 (100 rpm)
- 30-sec sprint at 1/10 (80 rpm)
3. Fat Burn Ride
Fat Burn Ride is a more classic HIIT cycling workout designed by CAROL Bike to maximize the afterburn effect of HIIT. It lasts between 17 and 25 minutes depending on the number of sprints that you select. According to 2021 research, the afterburn effect of a Fat Burn ride was more than 2.5 times greater than the afterburn after a 20-minute vigorous treadmill exercise. More than 50% of calories were burned after post-exercise.
- Warm-up: 2 mins of easy pedaling
- 8-second sprint at maximum intensity
- 12-second recovery (easy pedaling)
- Repeat intervals 30, 45 or 60 times
- Cooldown: 3 mins of easy pedaling
4. Classic Tabata cycling workout
Tabata is a popular type of HIIT workout that can be adapted to cycling. This is a short but very intense workout that improves anaerobic capacity and increases your performance. Each Tabata round consists of 8×20-second intervals with brief recovery periods of 10 seconds, 4 minutes in total. You can repeat as many rounds of Tabata as you want to increase the length of training.
- Warm-up: 4 mins of easy pedaling
- 20 sec: pedaling at high resistance
- 10 sec: pedaling at low resistance
- Repeat intervals 8x
- 30-sec rest
- Repeat intervals 8x
- 30-sec rest
- Repeat intervals 8x
- Cool down: 3 mins of easy pedaling
5. REHIT
Reduced Exertion HIIT (REHIT) offers the shortest, most effective workout. It is perfect for people pressed for time as it only takes 5 minutes to complete. With just 2×20-second sprints, it is scientifically proven to deliver superior health and fitness benefits in 90% less time compared to regular cardio.
CAROL Bike is the world’s only home exercise bike optimized for REHIT. It’s AI-personalized algorithms will learn to push you to your limit during the REHIT sprints, leading to significant body adaptations. Here’s how a REHIT ride on a CAROL Bike looks:
- Warm-up: 20 sec – 2 mins of easy pedaling
- Sprint 1: 20 sec of all-out effort
- Recovery: 1-3 mins of easy pedaling
- Sprint 1: 20 sec of all-out effort
- Cool down: 3 mins of easy pedaling
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