Circuit Training Workouts For Weight Loss

Circuit training is a concept where a number of different weight training exercises are performed with little rest between exercises. This style of training can be a very effective addition to a fat loss program. Traditional fat loss methods such as cardiovascular exercise rely on your body's aerobic system to burn fat. Circuit training utilizes your anaerobic energy systems to elevate your metabolism and burn even more fat.

Mechanism for Fat Loss

A brief, intense activity like lifting a heavy barbell relies on your body's anaerobic metabolism for energy. This energy system uses the carbohydrates your body stores in your muscle tissue for fuel. The fuel supply is very limited; that is why you cannot continue lifting a heavy weight for more than a few repetitions. In the August, 2010 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," a study conducted by Rodrigo Lavinas Da Silva, et al, determined that a brief rest period will replenish some fuel, but total replenishment can take up to 38 hours.

You do not burn fat directly by training with weights. However, you will utilize your body's fat stores in the 36 hours it takes to replenish your muscles' carbohydrate fuel. This effect is known as EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.

Exercise Selection

For best results, you must choose exercises that recruit the most muscle mass possible. Machines are OK, but because you are typically moving in a controlled path, they do the work of stabilization for you. Free weights require you to balance the weight in space as wells as move it through the exercise's path. That is more work. Barbells allow your arms to work together; dumbbells force each arm to work alone and recruit more mass.

Choose one exercise for each major muscle group. One exercise each for your hamstrings, quads, back, chest, and core will give you a circuit of five exercises. Again, you want exercises that recruit a lot of muscle mass; exercises for your biceps and triceps just are not demanding enough. It is better to include exercises such as bent rows that work your back and biceps together, or dips that work your chest and triceps together. The goal for this kind of workout is to deplete fuel stores, not to stimulate muscle growth.

Exercise Order

To put all of the exercises together, start with the biggest muscle groups and work your way down. One possible order is hamstrings, quadriceps, back, chest, core. You can also alternate muscle groups that are farther apart, which will give you slightly more recovery time between exercises. An appropriate order would be hamstrings, back, quadriceps, chest, core.

Weight and Repetitions

You have two anaerobic energy systems; the phosphocreatine system fuels efforts for about five seconds, while the glycolitic system will last two minutes. With that in mind, you want each exercise to last at least 20 seconds. That means a repetition range of 15 to 20 reps per exercise.

For weight, you want the last repetition to be a challenge, but you do not want to reach failure. If cannot finish your last rep, you're using too much weight. You do not want to recover fully between circuits, but training to failure can put too much strain on the central nervous system and fatigue you before you're finished.

Sets and Rest Periods

It might be useful to think of moving through the exercises in a circuit as running laps on a track. If you choose your reps correctly, each circuit will last two minutes. That is a two minute lap. Try resting two minutes between each circuit. If you don't recover enough for the next circuit, try less weight. Within each circuit, you should limit the rest between each exercise to 10 seconds, or as long as it takes to get to the next exercise.

Go through the circuit three to five times. That is six to 10 minutes of actual work in a training session. Including rest periods, your workout will last 12 to 20 minutes. If time and energy permit, you can construct two circuits of different exercises for each muscle group and double your training time.