Exercise Circuits
For the typical gym or fitness-studio goer, right now is a tough time adjusting to keeping up with our physical fitness goals and ambitions. We’re cooped up inside without our weights or climbing walls to run through our normal everyday fitness routines. Fortunately for some, gyms are slowly starting to open up with heightened health precaution measures. However, the traditional, enclosed setting of a gym has come into question in spite of these precautions, leaving most hesitant to return to gyms any time soon.
As a proponent for health and physical well-being, I would advise that now is as good a time as ever to shake things up and consider alternatives to the norm. We have to get creative with what we have at our disposal and make do with it as best as we can. Something that I’ve found to be effective and minimalistic in nature is running exercise circuits.
To clarify before going on any further, circuit training is different from the famed interval training I’m sure most of you are familiar with. Circuit training is a workout routine that is centered around moving from one exercise station to the next with minimal to no rest between stations. On the other hand, interval training is traditionally focused on a cardio-based workout routine where individuals alternate between intervals of high-intensity movements and low-intensity movements or rest periods. Both are simple, effective ways to tackle exercise in a short time window with minimal equipment, but for the sake of this post, we will focus on solely circuit training.
Whether at home, outside, with no equipment, or with some equipment, you can still craft a circuit of exercises to complete as part of a workout. In crafting your circuits and exercises, a good circuit structure to follow would be:
Lower Body Station
Upper Body Station
Cardio Station
Core Station
By following a structure similar to the above, you can get in a workout from the comfort of your home in less than 20 to 30 minutes. By structuring the stations in this manner, you won’t need to worry about having rest periods in between stations since each will target a different muscle group or purpose. Gone are the days when you’re scrolling on your phone as you catch your breath during your rest time between sets. All your time will be focused on the exercise station in hand, leading you to a more purposeful workout.
Aside from the psychological and time-saving benefits, the true power in circuit training comes in the form of working on both working your muscles and getting cardio in. How many of us all dread the idea of jumping on a treadmill to get cardio in? How many of us avoid working on working our muscles in fear of how to lift a weight, whether your own bodyweight or from a plate/dumbbell, and the results that may come from doing so? With circuit training and an example plan I’ll go over below, you can yield the benefits of toning your muscles, possibly even growing them, to keep your body revving to burn more fat all while also keeping your cardiovascular health in great shape from moving from exercise station to exercise station.
For the following example routine, all you’ll need are some resistance bands like these to add some variety to strength movements. The session can be completed in the comfort of your home or outside at a local park. Make sure to practice safe social distancing if you do decide to perform this outside!
30 Minute Circuit Session
Instructions: Complete one movement for each station in Set A for 1 minute. Rest for 1 minute after completing Set A and repeat with Set B to complete the first go around of the circuit. Repeat the circuit two more times over from the top, resting 1 minute between sets.
Set A (4 minutes)
Lower Body: Jump Squats
Upper Body: Band Reverse Curls
Cardio: High Knees
Core: Leg Lifts
Set B (4 minutes)
Lower Body: Banded Glute Bridge
Upper Body: Band Resisted Pushups
Cardio: Burpees
Core: Mountain Climber Twists
This is merely an outline and example you can follow. Switch up the exercises by station depending upon your physical limitations, disposable equipment, and environment you are able to work in. The following lists are some ideas to slot into each of the exercise stations to keep shaking things up:
Upper Body:
Tricep dips
Plank taps
Handstand holds
Supermans
Pull ups
Lower Body:
Lunges
Standing Calf Raises
Leg Lifts
Wall Sit
Split Squats
Cardio:
Jumping Jacks
Hill Sprints
Jump rope
Butt Kicks
Bear Crawls
Core:
Bicycle crunches
Knee touches
Toe touches
Flutter kicks
Heel touches
That’s the beauty of working out and exercising - there’s never just one static routine that you have to follow. You can always switch things up with the plethora of exercises available to you online for when you start feeling like you’re in a funk and need some change.
Time is… well I don’t know given this new world we live in with the coronavirus. Some days seem to go slow while others, mostly just weekends and holidays, breeze by in the blink of an eye. It’s hard to get a firm grasp of time like we are all normally accustomed to given that we’re mostly staying indoors as much as possible. The lack of sports or any other form of escape makes these times even more difficult to grapple with. In the end though, exercise is always there to help spice things up, get us some fresh air, and provide us a multitude of benefits that stem far outside of the pure physical appearance benefits.
While we’re in a state of idleness and boredom, we can look to circuit training to provide that dynamism that we all crave for in life. The world is already acclimating to these type of workouts through zoom fitness class calls to provide the much needed social interaction that we all need. Whether we can find normalcy from a year ago at some point or have to adapt to a new normal all together going forward, circuit training will always be available to us and a way to keep up with our healthy lifestyles.
“There are no small accidents on this circuit.” - Ayrton Senna
