20-minute spin workout: Short, sharp HIIT efforts with Conor Dunne
Follow Conor Dunne on this quick but intense HIIT indoor cycling workout. Perfect for building sprint power and burning calories
GCN
The GCN team
Conor Dunne leads this 20-minute, HIIT indoor cycling workout focused on short, sharp efforts. After a five-minute warm-up, the hard efforts come thick and fast. This is a great at-home training session when you’re short on time.
The workout is based on perceived effort rather than training zones, although you can use these if you know them.
For this session, you'll need an indoor bike or exercise bike, plus a fan to keep cool. Keep a water bottle and a towel within reach so you can stay hydrated and catch any sweat.
From VO2 Max efforts to strength training drills, check out GCN's best indoor cycling workouts
Are HIIT indoor cycling sessions good for burning fat?
High-intensity training is a really time-efficient way to burn calories. Sprint intervals will burn more calories in a shorter period of time than steady-state exercises, so if you want to squeeze fat-burning exercise into your busy schedule, HIIT training sessions like this one are a good idea. To learn more about how high-intensity exercise helps with fat loss, have a look at this study.
Read more: How to use Zwift and a smart trainer to lose weight
Is a 30-minute workout long enough for indoor cycling?
Life can be busy and finding time for cycling can be tricky, often leaving only small pockets of time to ride your bike.
When you get these precious moments of free time, a short 20-minute workout like this is perfect. It may not be long, but it packs in plenty of high-quality training in the time, and with it lots of performance gains. Some studies have shown that regular short training sessions are actually better for fitness than less frequent longer exercises too.
Indoor cycling workout details
- GCN instructor: Conor Dunne
- Indoor workout duration: 20 minutes
- Indoor training type: A hard HIIT workout
- Fitness difficulty: A tough but achievable indoor workout that will lead to lots of performance gains
- Benefits of this indoor cycling workout: Building muscular endurance, boosting sprint/anaerobic power, calorie-burning
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Warm up on your smart trainer or spin bike for five minutes
We'll start with a gradual warm-up. Following Conor's lead, slowly ramp up from 3/10 to 5/10, before bringing the intensity right down to 2/10 to get your breath back. You should be feeling fresh and warmed up, ready for the tough efforts to come.
Sprint intervals: Follow Conor's lead as we gradually increase the intensity
This session alternates between high-intensity efforts and low-intensity recovery periods. Keep listening out for Conor's instructions, as every effort is slightly different. This session consists of two 'ramps' – two sets of efforts that gradually get harder, starting at 7/10 and finishing at 9/10.
Top Tip
This session is only 20 minutes long, so keep pushing right the way through these efforts. It'll be over before you know it!
Cool down on your bike by spinning out your legs
With the session over, it's time to spin out the legs. As this session is crammed into 20 minutes, we've given it a short cool-down period, but if you want to keep spinning until you feel like you've flushed out all that lactic acid, keep turning your legs gradually for a few minutes longer.
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