Interested In Some Circuit Training Exercises?
There are many ways one can approach a weight training regimen. You can work towards getting stronger, and bigger, or you can work towards getting leaner. You can work to become more stable, you can work to become more explosive, and so on. Within all of the possibilities also lies a plethora of various strategies, techniques, and idiosyncrasies. One very popular way of lifting weights that is a lot more complex than it would outwardly seem, is called circuit training. Circuit training is a style of weight lifting that has the subject doing a usually prescribed number of repetitions on a certain piece of equipment, and then moving on to a different machine. Circuit training exercises vary according to your objective, experience, abilities, and fitness goals. For example, it could be that you’re moving to work a totally different body part, or it could be that you’re doing what is known as Giant Sets, which means one station after another, all focusing on a singular body part.
Which circuit training exercises you employ in your regimen is going to be dictated by several factors. Your overall objective being a primary one, as well as your health and physical abilities. It would go without saying that we’re not going to have a novice who is in her 70’s moving from one powerlifting station to another before a lot of groundwork is put down so as to avoid unnecessary injury and maximize results. Circuit training exercises vary as much as the type of circuit you can do, but for the sake of example, let’s examine a typical weight loss circuit wherein the subject is looking to dop a few pounds and put on a little muscle tone.
Circuit training exercises for the above listed scenario would be usually kept to the basics, depending upon the experience and level of imbalances possessed by the trainee. For example, as an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, I can assure you that a free weight bench press is likely not in the cards for a trainee with abnormally tight pectorals due to a previous tear in his supraspinatus until I have had a chance to resolve the issue through corrective flexibility training. This trainee would be better served by performing chest presses on a machine without using a lot of weight. Once they complete their prescribed number of repetitions, they would move on to a different station. If you want to do opposing muscle groups so as to allow a little rest of whatever you just worked out, then this trainee would go to a back station. Lat pulls downs, for example, may be in order. From there it could be off to quadriceps extensions followed by hamstring curls, and so on and so forth. How long they are permitted to rest in between stations is solely up to whomever is designing the workout, but careful attention must be paid to the cardiac limits of the trainee. In other words, pushing is ok, but don’t overdo it.
Circuit training exercises should be varied as should the prescribed repetitions so you can utilize both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, thus ensuring a full workout. As an example, you may perform a set of 20 military presses with a relatively light weight, followed by a set of 8 somewhat heavy barbell bicep curls. On the next go round, you may switch those values so the shoulders work a little heavier without performing as many reps, and vice versa for the biceps as well.
How many times you go around the circuit depends on how many circuit training exercises you have set into your plan. You obviously don’t want to be there for days on end, but you need to be sure that you’re getting in a proper and worthwhile workout. The best way to plan on these things is just to try it out and adjust on the fly, so to speak. Once you figure out a solid, doable routine, stick with it. If you’re consistent with your efforts as well as with your nutrition, you’ll see the results you’re looking for.
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Andy
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