Circuit Training Exercises and Circuit Weight Training Workout Routines
With its ability to promote muscle building and fat burning, a circuit training workout represents a terrific exercise regimen that can be done in a relatively short amount of time. However, I’ve recently been using circuit training exercises to improve my endurance and cardiovascular health. Circuit training involves moving from one exercise to the next with little to no rest. I prefer to incorporate circuit weight training routines at the end of my workout in order to increase my heart rate and lose some fat in the process.
Your routine can be adjusted to include any number of these exercise as you prefer, which is great. You can add what works for you to your workout, as I have listed some circuit training exercise that are working well for me and also some samples of circuit weight training routines.
The three categories I use are bodyweight, barbell, and dumbbell for my circuit training exercises, which works well because I do my workouts at home. I move quickly through the exercises without resting because I am not hampered by changing weights between each exercise. When I perform my barbell exercises, I like to lift a 65 lb weight. This level of weight gives me just enough resistance to concentrate on my main endeavor which is increasing my cardiovascular endurance, but it isn’t enough weight for all of my exercises. For my dumbbell exercises, I employ weights of 12 lbs. When I am doing my core strength training I use a much heavier weight for slower reps, but the 12 pound dumbbell allows me to do fast reps without resting, although the weight is not heavy enough for other exercises. Bodyweight exercises are also great to add to a circuit training routine as you don’t need any equipment. I’ve listed the muscles worked in parentheses.
A basic circuit training workout can have a wide range of different exercises incorporated into it as is clear from the previous information. I’ve been known to do as many as 15-20 of these exercises in a row without stopping. The movements make the end of my routines more interesting, and each one has a different impact on my muscles. All I need to do is finish 1 circuit of 10 repetitions per movement. I try to avoid hitting the same muscles in back to back exercises.
It is certainly possible to perform circuit weight training routines that are briefer than 15-20 different movements. For instance, MMA star Randy Couture performs a circuit training regimen encompassing upright and bent over rows, military presses, lunges, good mornings, squat push presses and deadlifts only. The routine is made of 8 repetitions of each movement, completed in 3-5 sets, including a minute of rest dividing each circuit.
Workout routines can include countless types of circuit training exercises. Develop your own circuit weight training regimen by aggregating some of the exercises you like best. You can reduce fat and build muscle by adding a high intensity set, or even two, to your regular workout, which will also really help to increase your cardiovascular endurance.
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