If you have ever been to one of my face to face fitness sessions, you will know that I LOOOOOVE circuit classes. They are beautifully time efficient and effective.
Circuit workouts can train both your cardio-vascular fitness (huffing and puffing) and train all of your muscle groups in the one session.
I am probably not what you would consider the “normal” type fitness professional. I don’t live for the gym and I don’t want to spend hours working out every day. I want to get the most BANG for my BUCK in the fastest possible time when it comes to my fitness sessions. So that I can spend more time… you know, actually enjoying the rest of my life. 😉
Why would I choose to workout in a way that focuses on either cardio OR resistance, when I could choose to do both in one session. I can do 3 – 4 short effective circuit workouts per week instead of 3 cardio sessions PLUS 3 resistance sessions.
Below are some tips for how to write your own circuit workout
- burn fat
- build lean muscle
- improve strength
- increase fitness
- all in the one session
Step 1)
Warm up for 5 minutes by walking, jogging or dancing around like a crazy happy person. 🙂
Step 2)
Choose 5 exercises that cover all of your muscle groups
- Upper body push – eg. push ups, chest press, shoulder press
- Upper body pull – eg. pull up, row, towel pulls
- Front of legs (quads) – eg. squats and lunges (any variety that does not hurt your joints)
- Back of legs (hamstrings and butt) – eg. deadlift, hip thrusts, kettle bell swings
- Core – eg. planks, lying leg raise, crunches
Step 3)
Do as many as you can of your first exercise choice
** if you can do more than 20 or so without stopping, then you may need to make the exercise harder by either adding more weight, or adding a jump, or going REALLY slow and getting a good mind / muscle connection.
Step 4)
Rest – – 30 seconds max,
then repeat for a total of 2 or 3 sets (depending on your fitness and strength level)
Step 5)
Do 1 minute of any cardio exercise that gets you huffing and puffing.
Eg. running, high knees, star jumps, skipping, dancing around like a crazy happy person.
It should feel quite hard.
Be honest with yourself. If it does not feel hard enough, dig deeper and put in more intensity.
—
Step 6)
Choose the next exercise on your list and do 1 – 3 sets of as many as you can do.
—
Step 7)
Choose another 1 minute cardio exercise
—
Step 8)
Repeat until all 5 exercise choices have been covered.
—
BOOM !!!
You have just written a workout that will
•cover all major muscle groups (which builds or at least maintains muscle)
•get you huffing and puffing (which will increase your fitness)
•continue to burn extra calories after your workout (EPOC, ** as long as you exercised outside your comfort zone)
IMPORTANT
*** Please stop if you feel any pain through a joint, or feel dizzy or nauseous.
Beginners may want to start with intensity levels that feel medium and work up to a hard level.
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- The best exercise for weight loss
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- Everything you need to know about exercising for weight loss
With almost 20 years experience, Chriss Tinslay is one of Australia’s leading Personal Trainers.
She now runs regular face to face and online fat loss coaching programs. Chriss believes that fitness and fat loss should fit into your fabulous life, NOT take over it. You can connect with her on Facebook where she shares useful tips each and every day.