circuit training question

Amy_B

I am planning on using my treadmill, exercise bike, and stepper tonight in some sort of circuit type training for an hour. Any suggestions on how best to work this? Should I do 10 minutes of each then go back and do 10 more minutes of each? Is that even called circuit training if no strength is involved?

MelleyJ

Yes, that's a circuit. One of the most popular circuits is Curves, who has each group start at one exercise and go from one to the other. To make it a bit more of a circuit, you could incorporate more stations and rotate 2 or 3 times, depending on the number of stations. Maybe put dumbells out and a stability ball and do each one of the 5 for about 2-3 minutes each for a total of 30-45 minutes. The purpose of a circuit is to get your heart rate up and down again. Or, if you want to do a circuit just on your treadmill you could even do an interval training where you keep the incline low for 2-3 minutes, then high for 1-2 minutes. Just a few ideas. That's one of the ways you can burn more fat, but keep your workout session times a bit more managable. Hope this helps.

HOSED49

Yep, its an interval circuit. Wether you crop together 3 exercises or 10, its considered a circuit. Most interval circuit programs are oultined this way, a set number of reps or time parameteres for exercises with a rest period. Its much like interval running or tabata protocaols. You run regular pace for one minute, sprint for 30 seconds, run regular pace one minute, sprint 30 seconds , and on and on until your ten minutes are up. Best thing is it can be done with any type of cardio equipment. There are also programs like the spartacus workout where you do specific exercises for a minute, rest 15 seconds, do the next exercise for a minute (as many reps as you can), with a total of ten exercises. You get to rest 2 minutes then repeat 2 more times. But thats a whole different animal. Back to your cardio plan, treadmill 10 minutes, bike 10 minutes, stepper 10 minutes. Then to add a little difficulty do the tabata protocol with the one minute reg pace followed by a 30 second sprint....