bike and also improve your top-end fitness. In this video we're going to

show you how to do a HIIT session on the bike and coach Ken from BPC has

designed the session. So Ken what are the benefits of HIIT training?

HIIT training is great for burning calories in a really effective manner so you're not

going to be spending all day on the bike, you're not going to be out for 4-5 hours

We're trying to get the same amount of work done in as short a time as possible

So because we're trying to get you working as close to your maximum power

output as possible for as long as possible throughout the session you also

maintain muscle mass and recruit all those big muscle groups as well

One of the other benefits of HIIT training is that it's been

scientifically proven to burn more calories and be more effective at

burning fat than just going out for long steady hours out on the road

So it's quality over quantity for this session? Exactly, lots of hard work. So this HIIT

session I've designed to you is going to have three ten-minute blocks of

sprinting. The first one is going to be 10 seconds as hard as you can go,

followed by 50 seconds recovery and make sure that you're still pedaling

throughout the recovery period. Don't just stop completely. The second one is

going to be a 20 second sprint followed by 40 seconds recovery and the third one

is a 30 second sprint followed by 30 seconds recovery. So we're sprinting once

a minute for 10 minutes. We're going to have two 5 minute rest periods in

between each of the three blocks and of course we're going to be warming up

thoroughly beforehand and cooling down afterwards as well

What sort of intensity is required for each of the blocks? So you're gonna start each of the

sprints as hard as you can go. So get out of the saddle 5 to 10 seconds as

hard as you can possibly go. With the longest sprints you'll probably want to

get back in the saddle in order to maintain that high power output, that

high cadence, and keep going whilst your legs are burning, almost everything's

hurting and get all the way to that 30 seconds

So how to do this HIIT session? Well, one of the great things about smart trainers such as the Tacx Neo

and Tacx Flux is the ability to pre program the training session into the

Tacx app or other third party apps such as Zwift and TrainerRoad. And what this

enables you to do is perform the session and the trainer will automatically

adjust the resistance depending on the interval that you're on in the session

So this is really great because you don't have to concentrate as much and

you can just focus on turning the pedals. Exactly, you can close your eyes and pedal

It's a really great thing about a smart trainer and a controllable trainer,

you don't really have to think about it, you can program the session in advance

and then just get on with it. With this particular workout

high intensity interval training, because the power output is so high you're gonna

need a trainer that provides really high levels of resistance. So the Tacx Neo goes up to 2200 watts

I think we might need a more powerful one, I don't think that's enough for me

I think that might just about cover it. Unlike some other turbo trainers you can actually

get out of the saddle and put the power down and they feel stable and another

really good thing is that they're direct drive which means that you don't get

wheel slip on the back wheel when you're really putting down the high torque effort

Yeah, that can be really frustrating in this particular type of

session where you're sprinting as hard as you can go. The other thing because

it's got a really accurate power meter built inside the turbo trainer, it's

going to give you some really great feedback in terms of your peak power so

then when you repeat the session in the future you've got a number there that

you know is reliable and consistent that you're trying to beat for next time, and beat your mates as well

Yes, it gives you motivation, enables you to track your

progress as well, your improvement. Yeah, so another option for this session

instead of the pre-programmed workout mode would be to put it in manual or

slope mode so that you're more in control of the exact precise power

output so you can squeeze every last watt out of your legs

It's not gonna be many.

If you enjoyed this video and found it useful then be sure to check out the

other specific training videos in this series and subscribe to the Cycling Weekly channel.