Want a body that’ll impress the ladies without having to spend three hours a day in the gym? First of all, stop starting every day with a box of Oreos and a two liter Mountain Dew. After you’ve mastered that, it’s time to start circuit training. Circuit training began to take form as early as the 1950’s and today it is a form of weight training that is highly effective in terms of both losing weight and building lean muscle mass. When circuit training you basically do a lot of reps of one exercise, take a 15-30 second break, and repeat on a different machine. You’re lifting so you’re building lean muscle mass but you’re constantly moving so you are also getting a cardiovascular workout and burning some serious calories. It’s the best of both worlds. To make the most of your circuit training I would throw in a half hour on the elliptical machine before you start training to get the blood pumping and get you warmed up to lift. Not to mention, the extra cardio will burn anywhere from 300-800 calories making your workout that much more effective. Another benefit of circuit training is that your heart rate goes up and stays up during resistance training, something that normally doesn’t happen while lifting weights. Circuit training also increases the amount of oxygen a person consumes after they exercise which helps them burn more calories all throughout the day. In short, circuit training is sure to make you lean and mean in no time. A seriously hardcore circuit training including half an hour of cardio should take a total of about an hour and a half so that means there’s no reason to skip visits to the gym. Whether it’s before work or after an hour and a half is very doable. Circuit training is especially useful if you have a lot of weight to lose as it lets you burn fat and muscle fast giving you that trim and toned physique that is so desirable to the ladies. Heavy lifters will insist that circuit training isn’t the way to go as they believe the only way to get a decent workout is to lift dumbbells as big as a Volkswagen Beetle and do 3 sets of 3 reps. The truth is, you can get size from circuit training and it will be the kind of size that is healthier in the long run. Look at it this way; if a guy weighs 250 pounds and he’s rock solid muscle he still weighs 250 pound which is going to tax the heart in his older years. With circuit training you can keep your weight down and still have good size. Also, you’re not putting the massive strain on your joints that even the most experienced and disciplined weightlifters are. In the short and long term, circuit training is the healthier option and will more likely get you the results you seek. Free weights and heavy lifting should be kept to a minimum and only used to target specific areas of the body after you have reached your goals. It is also better than just running or lifting. Just running will get you a thin, droopy build with very little tone while lifting only will give you the appearance of a guy who lifts weights and eats whatever he wants, neither of which are desirable looks. And unlike Crossfit, which uses some of the same ideas as circuit training you won’t have to do some of the archaic free weight exercises they use which will prevent you from straining or seriously injuring yourself. Below you can find a sample circuit training workout.
Sample Workout:
30 Minutes of Cardiovascular exercise
15 Reps Bench-press
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Lat Pull-downs
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Military Press
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Of Tricep Pull-downs
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Of Shrugs
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Of Concentration Curls
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps Of Rows
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
15 Reps of Leg Extensions
15-30 Seconds Of Rest
You can repeat these exercises two or three times or keep going with different exercises depending on what your fitness goals are. You can end your workout with a few hundred reps of the ab exercise of your choice and still be done in an hour and a half.
Article By: Jon DaBove
