The title is not really honest, it’s a 10 min “commitment”. If you frame it correctly, the result isn’t that surprising
"Twelve Weeks of Sprint Interval Training Improves Indices of Cardiometabolic Health Similar to Traditional Endurance Training despite a Five-Fold Lower Exercise Volume and Time Commitment"
The time durations differ by factor 5, more so it’s 1 min 500w + 9 min 50w compared to 45 minutes 110 w.
To frame that: Physical Labour can be sustained for longer durations at about 75w, and you cannot safely jump from 500w to resting state without a cooldown.
So imho the paper delivers what it promises.
2 min warm up
20 sec sprint
2 min maintain
20 sec sprint
2 min maintain
20 sec sprint
3 min cooldown
This.
We cannot tell, from the experiment, how much of a difference each high intensity section in the 10m contributes.
HIIT is not a cheat code. Yes, technically it is just 1 minute of active exercise but oh boy will that minute feel like ages, especially if you are out of shape.
It should intuitively make sense that that low intensity over a longer time and higher intensity over a shorter time would equal to roughly the same results (no exactly, they train slightly different things but let's keep it simple.)
Whether you do HIIT or low intensity exercises, at the end of the day you still have to put in the work. There is no shortcut.
People that are completely out of shape can do basically anything and it will give them great results. The hard part is building a habit of exercise.
Intersperse sprinting into your jogging is extremely important. Or other similar intensity lifts.