Question:
Hi Anna,
I’ve been hearing a lot about the benefits of circuit training, what exactly is it?
Thanks,
Penny
Answer:
I’m personally a big proponent of circuit training because that’s how I workout. After a brief fitness plateau, I found that circuit training keeps me challenged and motivates me more than any other workout I’ve done in the past. It also fits the most closely with my goals – which are improving my strength, cardiovascular fitness, and balance while keeping my physique lean and toned.
Before I get into why I like circuit training so much, I’ll tell you what exactly it is. Circuit training is a workout method that’s designed to develop muscular and cardiovascular endurance in one workout. One circuit consists of a series of exercises or activities performed in sequence with brief 10-second rest periods in between each exercise. Circuit training workouts keep the heart rate high while challenging all the major muscle groups in addition to the heart and lungs. Once you complete all of the exercises you have completed one circuit, but many training programs are designed for the circuit to be completed twice or even 3 times.
Obviously if you’re intent on building muscle mass, circuit training isn’t the best workout for you because it tends to keep its athletes lean, but very toned.
However, circuit training is an ideal workout for you if:
- You want to improve your strength as well as your endurance in one workout. By alternating exercises circuit training hits all the major muscle groups in one workout.
- Circuit training is a good workout for you if you want to burn body fat because it focuses on cardiovascular and strength endurance (low weight, high repetitions).
- Circuit training is a good workout for you if you tend to get bored quickly with traditional strength training/cardio training split programs.
- If you’re a sport specific athlete circuit training programs are often designed by conditioning coaches to improve both the strength and endurance you need for your specific sport.
- Circuit training is an ideal workout if your strapped for time because you can perform more work exercises in the same period of time because of short rest periods.
Circuit training costs little or nothing. I circuit train outside, at my gym and at home with very little equipment. Circuit training makes use of mostly body weight exercises – dips, push ups, body squats, and lunges. The only equipment I ever use in my current circuit training workout is a skipping rope, a stop watch, a stability ball, an exercise and a set of dumbbells – all very affordable pieces of fitness equipment.
