For young adults who exercise a bit, doing a quick 9-minute sprint workout leads to bigger drops in muscle power—like how high you can jump or how strong your legs and arms feel—compared to other similar workouts using burpees or steady hard exercise.

When young and older men do short, super-intense bike or sprint workouts, the young guys get better at using oxygen during exercise, but the older guys don’t — their bodies just don’t respond the same way.

After a quick 9-minute workout, sprint intervals might make your heart take longer to calm down compared to burpees or steady hard exercise — at least in young, somewhat active people.

Sprint and hard steady workouts get your heart pumping faster and keep it near maximum longer than burpee workouts in young, somewhat active people — at least during 9-minute sessions.

Teen girl gymnasts who train four times a week steadily get better at jumping power and handle landings more safely over a month, suggesting regular but not overloaded practice helps their bodies adapt and absorb impact better.

If you're trying to lower your bottom blood pressure number, going for long, steady jogs might work better than short, intense sprints — especially if you're only doing the sprints for less than 8 weeks.