Mark Matcho

If you've never done the Wingate-cycle test, let me try to explain what it feels like: It feels like your legs are giving birth. It feels like you've got an eight-martini hangover in your calves. Your face contorts like a porn star in an AVN-award-winning threesome scene. You emit noises that resemble feedback at a thrash-metal concert. Maybe your eyes are closed and you're rocking your head back and forth.

The upside: It's over in 30 seconds.

The Wingate test is done on a cycle ergometer and was developed at Israel's Wingate Institute, also home to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. (Yeah, I know, it's a small museum, ha, ha.) The ergometer looks like a regular stationary bike, but uglier and squatter, and has onerous silver weights dangling near the handlebars. The weights are what give the wheel resistance, and why pedaling for 30 seconds at maximum intensity makes you crave an epidural.

I rode the Wingate cycle as part of my research on a surprising and potentially life-altering theory called high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Think of it as the Evelyn Wood of exercise. The idea is that lightning-quick intense workouts might be as good for you as — if not better than — longer medium-intensity workouts.

And you don't need a Wingate torture machine to do HIIT. Consider this workout: Instead of jogging at 60 percent of your ability for 45 minutes, you sprint your legs off for 30 seconds. Then rest for a minute. Then repeat six times. Total workout time: nine minutes, plus a short warm-up and cooldown. HIIT could be the biggest time-saver since microwaves.

There's a growing body of research to support the health benefits of HIIT. Tests have shown that intense spurts of sweaty exertion raise endurance and improve cardiorespiratory fitness (the ability of your heart and lungs to pump oxygen to your muscles). It changes your body in ways that the slow-and-steady approach doesn't. It alters the muscle structure and increases enzyme activity. It boosts your metabolism — which is why it helps you lose weight as well. You may not burn a huge number of calories during the workout, but your body continues to zap calories for hours. "Think of it like a fireplace: It doesn't go out totally. It keeps glowing," Li Li Ji, professor of exercise science at the University of Minnesota, told me.

The idea of interval training has been around for decades, but in the last couple of years, it's inched closer to the mainstream. HIIT has gotten a boost from popularizers like best-selling author Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Body) and hardcore fitness franchise CrossFit. (Its mascot is called "Pukie.") Fitness fans are figuring out more ways to do it, including trying to run on a steep treadmill when the motor is turned off, so that your legs, not the motor, make the treadmill move. (This will make you cry.)

Choosing to be a hare instead of a tortoise does have downsides. It can be tough on your joints, and you should talk to your doctor before trying it. Did I mention it hurts like a bastard? You're basically choosing to rip the Band-Aid off quickly (intense pain, over in a flash) over the slow method (wee bit of pain, but much longer).

But the benefits are hard to deny, and while even Martin Gibala, chair of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario and one of the experts in HIIT, doesn't suggest ditching jogging just yet, he recommends making HIIT part of your week's three workouts. That's what I do now: one day of high-intensity interval training, one day of moderate intensity, and one day of strength training.

Just be prepared for postworkout aches. The day after my first Wingate session, I was walking around like Lurch, straight-legged and angled forward. It took me a full minute to sit down on the toilet — I had to ease myself onto it, clutching the sink. Efficiency has its limits. But aches and pains usually mean something's working.

How to Use High-Intensity Interval Training: A Translation

NORMAL WORKOUTS

Jog for 45 minutes at 8 mph, or swim moderately for 30 minutes, or bike for one hour at 10 mph.

HIIT VERSIONS

Sprint for 30 seconds, then rest for one minute. Repeat six times. Or swim full speed for 30 seconds, then rest for two minutes. Repeat five times. Or set stationary bike to highest resistance level, pedal furiously for one minute, then rest for one minute. Repeat five times.

THE ULTIMATE HIIT WORKOUT

From Mark Merchant, co-owner, As One Fitness, New York: guaranteed to kick your ass — and quickly. Do each exercise for 30 seconds at full throttle. Then take a ten-second rest.

1. Squats

2. Push-ups

3. Planks

4. Burpees

5. Split squats

6. Bent-over rows

7. Supine hip extensions

8. Burpees.

Total workout time: Five minutes. If repeated four times (as suggested): 20 minutes.

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