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When you’re looking to boost your endurance, hit new speeds on the bike, or simply improve your fitness, look no further than high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It’s a workout that’s adaptable for all levels of riders, practical for busy cyclists, and reliable for seeing real results in your performance—without a huge time commitment.
The best part about HIIT? You don’t have to only turn to the bike or indoor trainer to reap the benefits. “HIIT doesn’t only happen on the bike,” explains host Chaz Turmon in Bicycling’s Guide to Interval Training. “Off-bike workouts like running, rowing, strength circuits, or bodyweight intervals can also improve cardiovascular fitness and support your cycling performance.”
Want to take your interval training off the road? Here’s how you can utilize off-the-bike HIIT for a well-rounded cycling routine.
Why Off-the-Bike HIIT?
HIIT has a basic foundation, involving intense efforts that push your heart rate to between 80 and 95 percent of your maximum, paired with manageable recovery periods at 40 percent to 50 percent of your max heart rate. You can apply that approach to many different exercises, from strength training, to swimming, to bodyweight moves.
“There are lots of different formats, so [HIIT is] very adaptable and creative and can be really fun,” Shannon Walsh, certified personal trainer and owner of Expansive Strength in Somerville, Massachusetts, previously told Bicycling.
Cross-training in general comes with its perks, too. It’s a smart way for you to work different muscles while still building power, endurance, and performance that translates to the bike. Swap out a cycling interval session for an off-the-bike HIIT workout, and you can still reap the benefits of segmented, intense training like you would on an interval ride.
Just like with cycling intervals, your off-the-bike high-intensity segments can last just 30 seconds or less, or as long as eight minutes. You can also tailor your recovery based on the type of HIIT workout you are doing and the performance benefits you hope to achieve. Over time, your body adapts to those harder segments, and you teach yourself to recover quicker and maintain challenging efforts for longer. Some studies even show that consistent HIIT work can improve your mental health, and may reduce your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality.
Off-the-bike HIIT is also the perfect answer for beating training boredom. Break up the monotony of your cycling plan with a set of run intervals, or spice up your strength regimen with a HIIT session in the gym that includes 30-second bursts of intense bodyweight moves. There are seemingly endless possibilities when it comes to the type of activity you can complete, the length of intervals, and the intensity of workouts, making HIIT an ideal solution for diversifying your cycling and fitness routine.
How to Add Off-Bike HIIT to Your Cycling Schedule
You can get started with HIIT away from the bike no matter your experience, goals, or current fitness level. If you’re new to HIIT, consider starting with bodyweight exercises before taking your interval sessions to the bike. Or, if you’re more familiar with other moves or exercises, like running or strength circuits, begin by applying interval training to those activities before moving on to cycling.
“If you’re a cyclist, you might start with cycling intervals. If you love kettlebells, you might start with kettlebells,” Walsh previously told Bicycling. “You might start with something that you know and that you’re comfortable with so that you can read your body a little bit more easily.”
The easiest ways to measure your effort level—and successfully complete interval training off the bike—include tracking your heart rate or using the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, which involves grading your effort level within a 1-to-10 range. Both are guides that you can utilize across interval workouts variations both on and off the bike to execute your challenging intervals and dial in your recovery segments.
Pressed for time? HIIT workouts often require just a half hour of your time, making them easy to fit into even the busiest of schedules. If you don’t have 60 minutes or more to go out for a ride on a given day, head to the gym for a 30-minute HIIT strength workout, or complete a bodyweight session from the comfort of your living room. Even just one interval workout a week can lead to measurable fitness results, improving areas like your aerobic capacity, sprint speed, and overall cardiovascular health.
Jump into your off-the-bike interval training with the following bodyweight HIIT workout, designed for cyclists looking to begin incorporating intervals into their plans. For the days you take your HIIT to the bike, use our Guide to Interval Training and follow along with our four workouts included in the program meant to boost your speed, increase your endurance, and enhance your cycling fitness.
Bodyweight HIIT Workout for Cyclists
How to use this list: Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, then recover for 60 to 90 seconds. As you get started, perform the sequence once, working your way up to repeating the sequence 2-3 times.
Squat JumpStart with feet hip-width apart.Send hips down and back to lower into a squat. Keep chest up and core engaged.Drive through feet to stand back up, exploding off the floor.Land softly with bent knees.Repeat.Jumping JackStart with feet hip-width apart with arms at sides.In one motion, jump feet out wide while raising the arms out to the sides and overhead.Jump feet back together, bringing arms back down to sides.Repeat.High KneesStart with feet hip-width apart.Bend and raise the right knee to belly-button height while standing on the left leg.Quickly switch sides.Continue alternating.SkaterStand with feet hip-width apart.Shift weight to left foot and push off it to jump to the right, landing softly on right foot, knee bent, sending hips back, and left foot reaching behind right leg.Then, push off right foot to jump to the left, landing softly on left foot, knee bent, sending hips back, right foot reaching behind left leg.Continue alternating.
Ashley is Editor of Content Hype at Hearst’s Enthusiast & Wellness Group. She is a former collegiate runner at UNC Asheville where she studied mass communication. Ashley loves all things running; she has raced two marathons, plus has covered some of the sport’s top events in her career, including the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials and multiple World Marathon Majors.