Circuits Are My Friend
I’ve been having some crazy tough workouts the past few weeks. I used to be able to go most of the week without requiring that I change out my workout clothes, yes they’d smell some but it wasn’t bad. Those days are long gone … with these new circuit training workouts this year and me elevating my game I need a wardrobe refresh much more often.
My workouts usually looks something like this each week:
- Monday — Evening @ Home
- Warmup 5 min, Circuit Training 40 min, Cool down 5 min
- Tuesday — Evening @ Home
- Weight Training Lower Body 45-60 min
- Wednesday — Morning @ Home
- Warmup 5 min, Circuit Training 40 min, Cool down 5 min
- Thursday
- Workout day off
- Friday — Morning @ Home
- Warmup 5 min, Circuit Training 40 min, Cool down 5 min
- Saturday — Morning @ Gym
- Weights w/1 REP to failure all body parts ~20 min, Running 15 min, Walking 5 min, HIIT Elliptical 20 min
- Sunday — Morning @ Gym
- Weight Training Upper Body 35 min, Running 15 min, Walking 5 min, Stationary Bike Intervals 10 min
In case you were wondering, I always wear fresh duds to the gym. When I’m working out in the basement it’s just me and in the past the clothes didn’t bother me. The wife is still cooking our next baby and hasn’t been up to working out as of late otherwise I’m sure she’d say something.
Anyhow, as you can see I usually get ~3 solid circuit training sessions in at home during the week. They’ve been crazy hard recently and I’ve barely been finishing them. I usually end up collapsing on the floor at the end till I regain enough composure to stretch at the end. That’s a good thing though as I’m really pushing myself and the weight has been coming off.
Whenever I feel like a particular move in the circuit is getting easier I either raise the weight or start incorporating the more advanced version in (there are usually a few options in the DVD’s I’ve been doing).
The circuits are usually 30 seconds each and a circuit contains 5-6 exercises. Depending on the circuit all of the exercises may be repeated more than once for effect. They usually are a mixture of cardio with weights which really helps change things up and burn some crazy calories. At my weight (currently 323) LoseIt shows that I burn 807 calories in 45 minutes of circuit training.
If your looking for something new or want to elevate your exercises to the next level I highly recommend circuit training. You can pickup some cheap DVD’s like The Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout or Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones or you can build your own circuit training routines using equipment in the gym or in your own home.
