I currently climb stairs at my office for cardio and would like to incorporate HIIT into my workouts (my overall goal is fat loss and increased fitness).

My HIIT looks like this:

warm up

sprint up 4 flights
active recovery

repeat 4 times

cool down.

After 4 attempts, I realized that sprinting up 4 flights of stairs takes about 15 seconds, but I need at least 60 seconds for recovery and up to 90 seconds. Currently I can do 4 rounds; the total time takes about 6 - 7 minutes. This really does feel like the "100% couldn't do more without vomitting" sprint.

Does the ratio of 1:4 (or greater) counteract or diminish the effect of the HIIT? Is there a compensation factor in my favor because I am sprinting uphill?

Thanks for your input.

I would try to increase up to 8 rounds with whatever recovery interval you require. Then gradually try to decrease the recovery interval as much as you pratically can given you need to return the starting point unless you have access to a sky scraper! You might also want to try increasing your sprint to 5 flights or more (if you have access to more flights) at some point.

Thanks for your help. Just to confirm, my goal should be to increase the overall sprinting time.