Earlier today my sister was telling me about how she loved the circuits that I’d designed for her. I thought why not share the love? Simply put, these workouts are a series of exercises performed one after another with no rest. Once finished, you relax for a moment, rinse and repeat. Any combination of exercises can be incorporated into a circuit, but one of the biggest problems I found is that with the sheer number of exercises that are out there, she didn’t know where to start when it came to designing one.
Making up your own circuits probably isn’t a new thing to anyone into their exercising. But for the beginner, I suppose it can be quite hard. A quick Google search, brought up a few complicated looking articles. I wanted to show you something quick and simple. There are plenty of brilliant magazines available that have their fitness experts cook up a new circuit every month. However I want to show you the principles behind the circuits, so that you can build your own and adapt them to your needs as you learn more about exercise and the body.
Our circuits are going to go like this:
The Circuit:
Each Exercise will be done as many times as you can in a period of 45 seconds to a minute (the time is up to you, the longer the better).
After Each Circuit Rest for 2 minutes maximum.
Do the circuits a minimum of 3 times!
- Legs Exercise
- Horizontal Push
- Vertical Push
- Pulling Exercise
- Core Exercise
- Cardio Exercise
Now you may look at this, and be thoroughly unimpressed. You don’t realise it yet, but this outline puts a massive arsenal of circuits at your disposal. The idea here is that the exercises target all the muscles of your body, which is good for both fat loss and muscle growth (will explain in a later post), and you’re working at a rate that gets your heart rate up, so it’s good work for you’re cardiovascular system too!
Circuits are fantastically versatile things, they can be done anywhere, with weights, with resistance bands or with nothing but your body. They are varied and intense, unlike a monotonous jog around the block. For the ladies, you could incorporate weights for toning. For the fellas, you could incorporate heavier weights for muscle building.
The Example:
Designed for someone with no equipment and no gym access, just to show you how to use this outline:
- Leg Exercise: Jump Squat
- Horizontal Push: Press up
- Vertical Push: Headstand Push-Up against a wall.
- Pulling Exercise: Pull Ups if you can. If not try Body Rows off of a sturdy table.
- Core Exercise: The Plank
- Cardio Exercise: High Knees for 15 seconds, fast running for 10, then repeat.
Remember, circuits are many things. They are hard, they will make you hurt, the right circuit may even make you question your reason for carrying on living. One thing they will not do, is bore you. Boredom is a killer when it comes to exercise. You should NEVER be bored. Mix it up, try new things, experiment. Most importantly, enjoy…
