What is Circuit Training?

Circuit training consists of multiple different exercises performed in a row with little no rest in between.  It’s a very common style of workout routine used to train larger groups of people.  Usually there are multiple stations set up with a different exercise at each station.  The goal is to perform the exercise at each station for a given amount of time followed by a short rest and then move on to the next station. You’ll repeat this until all you go through the entire “circuit”, hence the term circuit training.

Not just for group training, circuit training is also great for working out by yourself.  You can pick 3 - 4 different exercises to do and do them all in row followed by a short rest, then repeat the entire circuit for several rounds. One of the advantages of circuit training workouts is the efficient use of time.  Traditionally, you’ll spend more than half of your time resting, especially when doing weight training.  The idea of resting between exercises is to let your muscles recover before repeating the same exercise again.  That’s fine when you’re goal is to gain strength and size, but if you’re goal is to burn fat and get fit, minimizing rest between exercises is key.

When you incorporate circuit training into your workout routine, you’re able to set up multiple exercises that emphasize different muscle groups so you won’t be limited by muscle fatigue.  This is what allows you to perform back to back exercises with minimal to no rest.  Therefore, circuit training not only saves you time, but more importantly it increases the intensity of your workouts, which is a key element if you want to lose the extra pounds.

Increase Your Intensity with Circuit Training For More Fat Burning

Countless studies have shown that the high intensity training burns significantly more fat than working out at a lesser intensity.  One big reason is that working out at a high intensity increases your metabolic functions and enables your body to burn fat long after you’ve finished working out - up to 48 hours.  How’s that for efficient?!

Intensity can be increased in various ways such as lifting more weights, performing exercises faster, and minimizing rest.  And the great thing about circuit training, is that you can adjust any one of the three factors mentioned to increase the intensity of your workout.  For example, increasing your intensity by lifting heavier weights requires you to have experience in weight lifting, so you don’t compromise form as fatigue sets during the workout.  However, the speed at which you perform the exercises and the rest interval between exercises can both be easily changed up to increase the intensity of your workout routine.

Circuit Training with Full Body Exercises

Another great way to increase the intensity while adding functionality to your workout is to use full body exercises instead of using isolated exercises.  Full body exercises is functional in nature and uses more muscles in your body, therefore expends greater energy and burns more calories than doing isolated exercises. So if you want a workout routine that maximizes burning fat and get you lean and defined, it’s best to workout at high intensities using full body exercises done in a circuit training format.