Besides sprints, would med ball slams, jump rope be appropriate to use as HIIT in the beginner template? If not what are some other options?
We suggest HIIT using a bike or rower as well. Jumping rope is fine if that’s one of your best options. I would not suggest the med ball slams at this time.
Curious, why the hate for med ball slams?
I wouldn’t do them as my sole and only method of HIIT, but he said the ‘sprints’ there … sprints [or your other suggestions] AND med-ball slams don’t sound horrible.
Just my 0.02$. I think if you are stuck with sprints (don’t have access to a bike or rower appartatus), HILL sprints are better than flat ground full-out sprints.
I’ve blown some stuff up doing flat ground full balls out sprints.
Never had a problem with hill sprints…the incline slowing things down, and the action of stepping up seems to attenuate things.
I don’t hate them or I would have been more forceful and said something like that. 
Do I think they are a great choice for a beginner needing some HIIT, not usually, but they can be used. A lot of beginners struggle to actually do something close to HIIT with the slams. You know that we’re really not that dogmatic about most things, Mbasic. So I offered other ideas.