With Christmas holidays around the corner and the New Year fast approaching many people will be pouring into gyms as part of a resolution or as a guilty reflex to eating all that holiday food. As a trainer I am often asked the question,"What is the best thing for me to do to lose weight?" Now this is a pretty general question that could have a variety of different answers depending on the person in question. But first thing is first, lets get you moving, and while I have you moving lets make this movement functional so it will carry over to either your sport or to your everyday activites. Now I know your schedule is full with work, school, practice, kids and many other things so lets get you in and out of the gym in under an hour with more physical and mental benefits than you have been getting from your monotenous marathon workout sessions. Sound interesting? Than circuit training might be right for you.
Is It A Fad?
Circuit training has gained much popularity lately in the form of bootcamps and exercise videos and while there are many gimmicky presentations put together with cheesy infomercials and ads with people in army fatigues the basis of circuit training is a very effective way to meet your fitness goals. So lets strip away all the fancy packaging and get down to the bare bones of circuit training and why it is effective.
Benefits of Circuit Training
The main benefit of circuit training is that you receive the benefits of both strength and cardiovascular training all in one workout. Lots of people are obssessed with strictly performing cardio for the purpose of losing weight. The truth is strength training is just as important for weight loss as cardio is. Your body's metabolism is directly linked to the amount of lean tissue (muscle) that your body has. The more muscle tissue the faster your metabolism, meaning that you are burning more calories around the clock, even when you are sleeping. However, this is not to discredit cardio. It is equally important in the quest for weight loss and there is plenty of it found in circuit training. Circuits are designed with many compound or multi-joint movements, meaning that multiple muscle groups are working together. Combine these exercises with either short, timed rest periods or no rest at all and this constant movement keeps the heart rate elevated, often times to a much higher level than traditional cardio because the intensity of the movements are far greater. That intensity level leads to the next benefit of circuit training which is duration or time. A great thing about circuits is you can get in more work in half the amount of time due to the fact that the intensity of the work is very high. While this is very accommodating to many peoples schedules, there is also a bigger reason why the shorter duration of the circuit is important. As you exercise your body will release testosterone which aids in the ability to build muscle tissue. If the duration of your workout lasts too long your body will start to release cortisol which will acutally break down muscle tissue and inhibit your goal of adding lean tissue to your body which as mentioned before increases your metabolism. The constant variety of the exercises found in a circuit format has also been found to stimulate the mind during exercise so your workouts do not drag, making them more enjoyable. Stay tuned for next Monday when I discuss more benefits of circuit training, go over some sample workouts and directly compare the amount of calories burned during a circuit to some more traditional forms of cardio. Think you might be interested in circuit training? For women click here, for men/co-ed click here.
Is It A Fad?
Circuit training has gained much popularity lately in the form of bootcamps and exercise videos and while there are many gimmicky presentations put together with cheesy infomercials and ads with people in army fatigues the basis of circuit training is a very effective way to meet your fitness goals. So lets strip away all the fancy packaging and get down to the bare bones of circuit training and why it is effective.
Benefits of Circuit Training
The main benefit of circuit training is that you receive the benefits of both strength and cardiovascular training all in one workout. Lots of people are obssessed with strictly performing cardio for the purpose of losing weight. The truth is strength training is just as important for weight loss as cardio is. Your body's metabolism is directly linked to the amount of lean tissue (muscle) that your body has. The more muscle tissue the faster your metabolism, meaning that you are burning more calories around the clock, even when you are sleeping. However, this is not to discredit cardio. It is equally important in the quest for weight loss and there is plenty of it found in circuit training. Circuits are designed with many compound or multi-joint movements, meaning that multiple muscle groups are working together. Combine these exercises with either short, timed rest periods or no rest at all and this constant movement keeps the heart rate elevated, often times to a much higher level than traditional cardio because the intensity of the movements are far greater. That intensity level leads to the next benefit of circuit training which is duration or time. A great thing about circuits is you can get in more work in half the amount of time due to the fact that the intensity of the work is very high. While this is very accommodating to many peoples schedules, there is also a bigger reason why the shorter duration of the circuit is important. As you exercise your body will release testosterone which aids in the ability to build muscle tissue. If the duration of your workout lasts too long your body will start to release cortisol which will acutally break down muscle tissue and inhibit your goal of adding lean tissue to your body which as mentioned before increases your metabolism. The constant variety of the exercises found in a circuit format has also been found to stimulate the mind during exercise so your workouts do not drag, making them more enjoyable. Stay tuned for next Monday when I discuss more benefits of circuit training, go over some sample workouts and directly compare the amount of calories burned during a circuit to some more traditional forms of cardio. Think you might be interested in circuit training? For women click here, for men/co-ed click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment