By Paul Kendrick, Cardio & Endurance Editor · Updated 28 September 2026
A bike is the best machine at home for interval training. You can go from easy to flat-out in two pedal strokes, there's no impact on your knees, and nobody's ever fallen off an exercise bike because the belt kept moving. That's why the sessions below use shorter, sharper intervals than our treadmill HIIT workouts.
HIIT (high-intensity interval training) means short, very hard efforts separated by easy pedalling. It won't do anything a longer steady ride can't, but it does it in about half the time. In a randomised trial, 15 bouts of 30 seconds at 90 to 95% of max heart rate raised VO2max by 3.5ml/kg/min over eight weeks, while 40-minute steady sessions produced a smaller, non-significant gain; the difference between the groups wasn't statistically significant either (Biomédica, 2019). Time-efficient, then, rather than superior.
Set the saddle so your knee keeps a slight bend at the bottom of the stroke, and warm up for 5 minutes every time, building from easy to moderate. Keep a towel and water within reach, because you won't want to stop the clock to find them.
"Hard" below means roughly 8 or 9 out of 10: you could hold it for the interval and not much longer. "Easy" means you could chat. If you use a heart rate strap, hard efforts should reach zones 4 and 5 in our heart rate zone training guide.
Resistance first, cadence second. For hard efforts, aim for 80 to 100rpm and turn the resistance up until that cadence feels brutal. Spinning fast with no load feels busy but doesn't work your legs much.
| Block | Time | Effort | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | 5 min | Easy to moderate | 70 to 85rpm |
| Hard | 30 sec | 8/10 | 85 to 95rpm |
| Easy | 90 sec | 3/10 | 60 to 70rpm |
| Repeat hard and easy | 6 rounds total | ||
| Cool-down | 4 min | Easy | 60 to 70rpm |
The 3:1 rest ratio looks generous. It is, deliberately, because the goal is six good efforts rather than two good ones and four slow ones. Move to 60 seconds of rest when all six feel even.
This one's harder than it looks on paper, since 20 seconds is barely enough time to catch your breath.
Pick a resistance for the hard efforts that you can hold for all six rounds in each block. If your cadence drops below 75rpm by round four, you started too heavy.
Researchers love this format, and for good reason: four minutes is long enough to push your heart rate close to max, so it builds aerobic capacity more directly than short sprints.
| Block | Time | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | 5 min | Easy to moderate |
| Hard | 4 min | 8/10, steady |
| Easy | 3 min | 3/10 |
| Repeat hard and easy | 4 rounds total | |
| Cool-down | 4 min | Easy |
Pace these. The first minute of each interval should feel almost too easy, and the last minute should feel like you're hanging on. Start the first interval at full effort and you'll struggle to finish the second.
Sprints here are genuinely all-out, 10/10, with heavy resistance and your best cadence. Stay seated unless your bike has a heavy flywheel and a solid frame; light bikes can rock when you stand and hammer.
Two sessions a week is the sweet spot for most people, three at the most, with at least a day between them. The NHS counts 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week as meeting its adult guidelines (NHS physical activity guidelines), and two HIIT rides plus a longer easy ride gets most people there.
Progress one thing at a time: add a round, shorten the rest, or add resistance. Don't do all three in the same week.
Going too easy. If you could talk during the hard bits, they aren't hard. Intervals only work because the effort is high.
Resting too little in the beginner sessions. Short rests turn a quality session into a long, medium-hard grind.
Doing it every day. Fatigue builds, the efforts get softer and you end up with daily moderate rides that feel awful. Easy days make hard days possible.
Ignoring your bike's limits. A cheap bike with a 4kg flywheel and a friction pad won't give you a smooth sprint. Our best exercise bike guide covers machines that handle interval work properly, and bikes like the MERACH self-powered bike can change resistance for you during app workouts, which saves reaching for the knob mid-interval.
Spin bikes with heavy flywheels suit Workout 4 best. Upright magnetic bikes handle all four, though standing sprints aren't wise on lighter frames. Recumbent bikes work well for Workouts 1 and 3; they're gentle on the back, and the seat lets you push hard without balance becoming a problem.
If you'd like to compare cycling with other machines, our rowing machine HIIT workout uses the same principles on an erg.
Warm up for 5 minutes, then do 30 seconds hard followed by 90 seconds of very easy pedalling, 6 to 8 times, and cool down for 3 minutes. The long recovery lets you hit each effort properly. Once that feels manageable, cut the rest to 60 seconds.
20 to 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down. The hard work itself is often only 6 to 16 minutes. If you can keep going for much longer, your intervals are too easy to count as HIIT.
Mostly resistance. Aim for a cadence of roughly 80 to 100rpm during hard efforts and add resistance until that feels very hard. Spinning at 130rpm with almost no resistance bounces you on the saddle and doesn't load your legs much.
Two or three sessions a week with a day between them. Fill the other days with easy riding or walking. Doing HIIT daily usually means none of the sessions are really hard.
It's more time-efficient, not magic. One trial found 7.5 minutes of hard intervals per session improved fitness about as much as 40 minutes of steady exercise. Most people do best mixing both.
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