With spring right around the corner, losing weight may hover high on your list of priorities and you may run a search for the quickest path to shed those pounds before swim season arrives. However, gaining muscle is just as important as losing excess body weight and can even help you burn fat faster than performing cardiovascular activities alone. Circuit training provides you with a quick workout focusing on all of your muscle groups while burning calories through an intensive cardiovascular workout.
The Importance of Exercise
Time-consuming work done behind a desk and a computer screen occupy most of our days, robbing us of the physical activity our body yearns for. This only creates an excess of calories that add onto the growing tires around our stomachs, arms and thighs. Although your body requires a set amount of calories to function normally, creating a deficit in your excess calories through your food intake and any form of exertion will create weight loss. By building muscle, you not only give definition to your body but you prepare it to push further during exercise.
What Is Circuit Training?
A combination of cardiovascular activity and strength training, circuit training provides an all-around workout targeting most of your muscle groups in one workout session. Rather than alternating cardio training days with weight training days, circuit training combines both into one effective and short workout that consists of a series of timed exercises. The Stretching Institute conveys the routine responsible for the success of many athletes such as Mike Stewart, who is a world champion triathlete.
The Benefits of Circuit Training
Raising your heart rate to an absolute maximum allows this exercise to shed pounds quickly and effectively while building up strength, endurance and flexibility. Due to its supple nature, you can modify the exercises to your liking and still achieve the results you desire. Its fast-paced activity level wastes no time in moving from one workout to another and its quick change of pace results in a continuous calorie burn throughout the workout. Not only that, but its inexpensive nature permits you to perform the exercises almost anywhere.
How to Circuit Train
After completing a 5- to 10-minute warm up that is imperative to prevent any injuries to the muscle, select a cardiovascular activity, such as running or jumping rope. Perform that activity at moderate-level intensity for 30 to 40 seconds. Immediately, complete a set of weights, such as a dumbbell bench press, or use your body to complete a set of push-ups or sit-ups. Do not push yourself to overexertion and immediately complete another 30 to 40 seconds of cardio. Keep alternating between the two types of training for the duration of the exercise which should last no more than 45 minutes depending on your fitness level. Remember to cool down and stretch for 10 minutes to allow the blood to stretch your muscles.
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