Circuit Training

Circuit training is a series of exercises repeated in rapid succession. It is intended to keep your heart rate up to burn a lot of calories. It can be a great time saver as it combines cardio with resistance training. If you choose to do some circuit training you should choose lighter weights to do more repetitions, at least 15 repetitions per exercise. It is important that you include exercises that will get your heart pumping. I find that whole body exercises in which I use my legs are best for this. You may select one or two whole body exercises with the rest maintaining your heart rate but not necessarily accelerating it too much. This is because the work out should be maintained for at least 20 minutes, so pace yourself.

You do not need weights to do circuit training. It is possible and good practice to do circuits of body weight exercises. I do most of my circuit training with kettlebells. I have a 25 lb. and two 15 lb. kettlebells. There are a lot of exercises you can do with kettlebells which makes them well suited for circuit training. As you could imagine you would not attempt to do 20 minutes of bench presses or bicep curls. The variety of exercises and muscle groups you train during your workout can effect how well you keep your heart rate up while you are training.

 

Here are some example circuits you could try.

 

15 push-ups followed by 50 jumping jacks, 60 second plank, and 50 jumping jacks then repeat the circuit starting with push-ups

 

Or

 

30 push-ups, 10 pull-ups and 60 seconds of jumping rope then repeat

 

Or

 

25 sit-ups, 20 push-ups and 60 second plank then repeat

 

Or

 

20 lunges, 10 half burpees, 30 second wall sit and 50 jumping jacks then repeat

 

You may adjust the number of reps in the workouts listed above to better suit your needs. There are of course many bodyweight exercises that you can do that I have not listed and that would be great for circuit training. Try to incorporate circuit training into your routine at least once a week. I would say that you could ideally do circuit training 3 times a week. You will get leaner, stronger and be faster before you know it.