The majority of people these days complain about being time poor. Gym attendance and memberships are usually the first things to go when people try to make room in their schedules to fit in all the other necessities of daily life. But maintaining and improving on your fitness is extremely important. Circuit training is a great way to maximise your time at the gym and get bang for your buck.
Make the Most of Your Time
Unless you are a fitness professional, it is likely that you don’t have hours a day to be spending at the gym. A good circuit training session can give you a great workout in the minimum amount of time. Whether you have as little as 15 minutes or a full hour, you can get a great workout in, as long as you really commit to your workout for that period of time. Set up a few stations and go for as many circuits as you can within a certain time frame, or give yourself a set amount of rounds to complete.
Work Your Whole Body
The human body is designed to work as a unit. Circuit training allows you to work your whole body as you move through various stations, hitting different muscle groups but keeping your body in tune and working as the advanced machine that it is. You will get a far better overall workout doing a solid circuit session than if you were to just zero in on biceps.
Combine Cardio and Weights
Going back to the majority of people being time-poor, circuit training allows you to get a great cardio workout whilst also hitting your muscles with strength training. Some stations of your circuit might include heavy lifting like
deadlifts, or shoulder presses, while other stations might be purely for cardio, like a
skipping station. Throw into the mix some hybrid exercises using
kettlebells and you have a great workout. Mixing and matching like this allows you to get coverage over your cardio and weight training quota for the day and really forces your body to work hard. You will leave the gym dripping in sweat feeling like you’ve had a solid workout, while other people sit on machines texting on their phones.
Cut the Que
Even if your gym is relatively busy while you are doing your circuit, it’s easy for you to mix and match stations along the way. So, if someone comes along to use a piece of equipment that is part of your circuit, like a
rowing machine, you can just skip over to your next station and then come back to that equipment once it is free. This way you can keep moving, keep your intensity high, and finish your workout without having to wait for other gym goers using equipment that you want.
Beat the Boredom
If you’ve been going to the gym for many years, or if you just aren’t all that thrilled with gym sessions to begin with, doing high-intensity circuit training will keep you engaged and active for a relatively short burst of time, whilst also giving you a great overall body workout and boosting your metabolism.
So many people seem to go to the gym and waltz around between machines, doing a bit here and there, or sit on an exercise bike for half an hour without really engaging with their training. This is a sure-fire way to lose interest in your workouts and gym attendance because it creates a staleness around your training. Those people won’t see proper results and therefore probably won’t continue on with their training for very long. Other people who train well, but lack the time to commit to an hour or more of training regularly will also fail to see results because of their lack of consistency. Circuit training can be a cure for both of these issues, so give it a go and spice up your workouts.
Try a few different circuits and add them to your weekly routines. Start with short circuits and then if you find you enjoy them and can push further, stretch out to 30 minutes or more. Enjoy your workout!
