Those who Have Succeeded with Circuit Training
Circuit training has probably been around forever. Bob Gadja who was a Mr. America in 1966 may have popularized it more than anyone. Victor Richards who is an immense bodybuilder is said to have used it in his early training. In his book, Huge in a Hurry: Chad Waterbury recommends circuit training whenever possible for getting big and strong. Even so, the general notion I have often run into is that circuit training is for beginners, girls, and general conditioning. When I found that most of the top lifters and bodybuilders didn’t use it, I stayed away from it for a long time.
There eventually came a time when I asked myself why I shouldn’t use circuit training, and why shoudn’t you or anyone else? The biggest reason you wouldn’t use it would be if you were in a crowded gym, in which case it would be far more convenient to stay with one piece of equipment until you finished with it. If not, someone one else could take over that piece of equipment as soon as you went to another exercise. However, if your gym is not crowded during your workout, or you work out at home and have enough equipment to set up a training circuit of a few exercises, then I see no reason why not to use it if you are smart about how to adapt it to strength training.
There are No Circuit Training Laws
There are no laws in regard to exactly how circuit training must be done. You can be creative and use it in any manner you would like. Some people think that circuit training must be done with light weights, but think about this:
There is no law that I know of that says you can’t use medium or heavy weights, or switch the amount of weight as you go through your circuits.
There is no law that says you can’t do a combination of training circuits with different exercises intermingled with straight sets of the same exercise.
Finally, there are no policemen who are going to force you to race from one exercise to the next with almost no rest, which is how circuits are often performed.
Set Up Circuit Training to Work For Strength
Circuits can be set up just about any way you want. If you are doing a circuit for two different body parts, and switching back and forth between the two exercises, some would refer to this as super setting the two exercises. If you have at least three exercises set up for three different body parts, then you are doing an actual circuit.
The main thing about using circuits for strength training is to use weights that are heavy enough to stimulate strength, and to move at a pace that allows you to avoid heavy breathing before starting a set of an exercise. Avoid the accumulation of substantial muscular and cardio fatigue. Also be sure that you do not do a circuit of three or more exercises for the same body part, as this would be a tri-set or a giant set, which is not the same as circuit training.
An Example Circuit Training Using Mini-Sets
In my opinion, one of the best ways to use circuit training for strength is to use it in conjunction with mini sets. Mini sets are done by stopping well short of your marker rep where rep speed begins to slow down during a set. For example, if you are doing a circuit of squats, bench presses, and pulley rows, you could use a weight that allows you to perform 12 reps if you were to stop at your marker rep. However, when using mini-sets, you would only do sets of 4 or 5 reps with the same amount of weight that allowed you 12 reps. The circuit would consist of just one set of each exercise to make up one circuit, then repeat the circuit as many times as you can until you feel the last rep of your mini-sets start to slow down. You may be surprised at how quick you can get through a workout in this manner while getting in a lot of training volume in without burning out your muscles.
When you use circuits effectively, each body part is fully recovered by the time you exercise it, but you’re not sitting around for a long time between exercises. The major benefits are that you save time, and your cardio vascular condition improves. You may also find some fat burning benefits as well. The main thing is to adjust the amount of weight and the amount of rest time between sets in order to make it work for strength training. I will discuss some more ways to do this in the next article. If you are looking for a way to reduce your training time and improve your cardiovascular condition, you can give circuit training a try. Best of training to you.