yet another HIIT thread

So, I have been doing what I think is HIIT for about 3 weeks.  I had been doing about 30 second sprints and 1.5 minutes recovery for about 15-20 minutes (plus about 5 minutes of warm-up and 5 minutes of cool down, which total gives me 25-30 minutes). 

I do my HIIT with a jump rope...does anyone else do this?  I don't really have a good place to run (the sidewalks here in Rome are usually taken over by tables and chairs from restaurants and cafe's and there isn't a park nearby or anything).  Plus, we are too poor to have a gym membership.  I originally had my husband time my 30 second interval and I counted the number of rotations of the rope I could do in 30 seconds.  I recently reached 90 rotations every 30 seconds.  I don't have a heart monitor, but can anyone tell me if this is intense enough?  

Also, today I decided to change my intervals.  I decided to do 20 seconds "sprint" with the jump rope and 40 seconds recovery...is this okay?  I could only do about 12 minutes, but I'm sure I will be able to get to 15 minutes again soon.  I'm assuming these intervals are okay, but I wanted to double check...

Try double unders, they make jumping rope very hard.

I don't have input for you, but wanted to tell you that jump rope was a really smart idea. What you don't have in your wallet, you've got in your head!

Thanks!  Yeah, I just got a nice jump rope for about $12 and I do it in the little courtyard of my building.  It's a nice economical solution.

Anyone else have any input??????

If you want an alternative, you could try Get Metabolic - it's a bodyweight circuit and it's definitely got the "high intensity" and "interval" elements. So far I've only done it once (and only did one set) and damn it was tough.

The only equipment you'd need is an exercise ball.

That sounds interesting!  I have to do all of my work outside though because my house really is that small (as in, if I jump, I will clock my head on the ceiling).  Doing burpees and things like that might be kind of difficult outside (dirty more than anything else).  This I will save for when we have a bigger house with higher ceilings.  I saved it for the future though! 

I was able to do it in our low-ceiling basement (and a few things I didn't do quite as prescribed - the explosive step ups don't work great when you are stepping onto the second stair of a carpeted stairway, as opposed to the stepper that she uses - so I just did regular step ups), but I understand the concern.

Kbella-

Those intervals sound good to me. I currently do my HIIT on a bike, and I just started doing 15 second sprints with 45 seconds of recovery. I try to do it for at least 20 minutes. Definitely aim for 15 minutes if you can. I want to try HIIT with a jump rope sometime. I keep hearing such great things about it.

cardioqueen- Thanks!  I was thinking they were all right.  I should be able to work my way up to 20 minutes in no time.  The humidity has been pretty high this week (lots of rain), which really affects my asthma and ability to breathe...which may have been why I could only do 12 minutes.  Luckily, exercise has really helped out my asthma...I can breathe so much better than I could before.   

In any case, I highly recommend the jump rope HIIT.  It is so simple...you can do it anywhere.  I would recommend buying a nice speed rope with ball bearings so that you can get the most out of it.