Circuit workouts consist of a series of resistance training exercises performed one after the next, with minimal rest between individual exercises and sets. The rate of the workout keeps your heart rate up, which gives you a cardiovascular workout as you strength train. Circuit training increases your post-exercise metabolic rate more effectively than a traditional cardiovascular workout, which means that you burn more calories immediately after the workout than you did before you began.
Body Weight Circuit
Body weight exercises are convenient because they don't require equipment and can be done at home or outside. Most body weight exercises use large muscles or a combination of muscle groups, so achieving a total body workout isn't difficult. Walking lunges and side-stepping squats make normally static exercises dynamic, helping you burn more calories. Functional exercises, such as a squat into an overhead reach with a heel raise, or lunging while reaching, can help you strengthen through daily movement patterns. Calisthenics such as push-ups, sit-ups, elbow-to-knee crossovers, planks, jumping jacks and donkey kicks all are examples of body weight exercises you can incorporate into a circuit. Chin-ups and pull-ups use your full body weight against gravity, but require a secure overhead bar. Choose three exercises to target your entire body, such as lunges, planks and push-ups. Perform each exercise for 60 seconds, only resting after the full set for 60 seconds --- a circuit should take four minutes. Go through the circuit five times.
Dumbbells and Plyometrics
Combining dumbbell exercises with plyometric training is a more advanced routine that can burn a lot of calories. Plyometrics are explosive jumps. Examples include the box jump, or springing out of a squat position and up onto a low platform; push-ups with a clap in-between; vertical squat jumps and split squat jumps. Not all plyometrics are strictly vertical. The side hurdle hop, for example, is horizontal with a vertical component. Use dumbbells or weighted bars for your upper body, choosing exercises such as the upright row, overhead press, biceps curl and triceps extension. Choose two plyometric exercises and three dumbbell exercises. Alternate between 15 lifting repetitions and 10 jumps, resting for 30 seconds between exercises. Don't rest between circuit sets. Perform the circuit 10 to 15 times. Wear supportive shoes. Keep in mind that if you have any type of musculoskeletal injury, you shouldn't consider plyometrics training, according to "The Navy SEAL Physical Fitness Guide."
Ball and Band Circuit
With a stability ball and a resistance band, you can perform a number of standard exercises with added instability or added resistance. Use the resistance band to work your outer thighs and get your heart rate up with side-steps; hold the handles, step on the band with both feet, and slide-step back and forth. Other band exercises include seated rows, squat with an overhead press, triceps extensions and biceps curls. By adding an element of instability with the stability ball, your core muscles are engaged even as you working other parts of your body. Ball exercises include wall squats, with the ball between your back and the wall; push-ups, with the ball under your hands or your feet; abdominal crunches; and the glute bridge, with your heels on the ball and your back on the floor. Choose six exercises, alternating between the ball and the band. Perform each exercise for 60 seconds, resting an additional 60 seconds at the end of one circuit. Repeat the circuit three or four times.
References
- "Optimum Performance Training for the Health and Fitness Professional"; National Academy of Sports Medicine; 2004
- "The Navy SEAL Physical Fitness Guide"; Patricia A. Deuster, Editor; 1997
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