by Shane Christensen

Created on: June 28, 2008

For the typical person, the benefits of circuit training can be narrowed down to one definitive advantage and that is TIME. And that applies to the time you save by doing a number of exercises in a successive order, which results in less time being spent at the gym.

As a personal trainer of many years, I have heard hundreds and possibly thousands of times that the biggest obstacle most people have to sticking to an exercise regimen...is time. It makes sense considering how busy most of us are, living in a fast-paced and demanding modern world that leaves you feeling tired and depleted of energy after the commitments of work and family.

Circuit training involves performing a number of specific exercises with little or no rest in between, so that you can manage to complete an effective workout in about 30 minutes. Another benefit is that because your heart rate is elevated due to the intensity of the training method, you realize cardiovascular benefits that you'd normally only see with aerobic exercising. So in essence, you're killing two birds with one stone.

Circuit training is great for people of all different fitness levels, whether they be novices or trained athletes. As a person who has worked out out seriously for the last decade, I wouldn't think of not incorporating this training method into my workouts for many reasons.

I'm always looking for the most efficient means of exercising that manages to still reward you with maximum results, and circuit training does this perfectly. One example of just how efficient this system is evident from a typical leg workout that I would do a couple of times a week.

Normally when you perform a specific exercise that involves one muscle group, you have to wait a minute or so to recover enough to use that muscle again. For instance, if I performed a set of 12 reps of calf raises, I would have to wait to do another set. But with circuit training, you simply plan your exercises to use various and different muscles while exercising the same part of the body.

So a typical leg workout would look like this: 1 set of 12 reps lying leg curls
followed immediately by 1 set of 12 reps leg press
followed immediately by 1 set of 12 reps calf raises
followed immediately by 1 set of 12 glute extensions

After the completion of these four different exercises, I usually take a short break of about a minute to drink some water and stretch a bit, and then I start my second circuit, followed with a similar rest, and then the third and final circuit. After I've finished the last circuit, I might do some non-circuit exercises such as squats or leg extensions, just to give the legs a really good shock.

Your body demands change and variety to spur it to new levels of growth, strength, and endurance, and circuit training can provide an unlimited opportunity of variety as you can literally make every workout a bit different every time you go to the gym. And this also prevents you and your body from boredom and stagnation, which are a couple of other reasons people give up on exercising, and that's a bad thing as the rewards of a consistent exercise regimen have been proven as a medical fact.

Plus there is no greater reward than having your significant other look at you with that gleam in their eyes that you haven't seen in a few years, or when friends or associates comment on your amazing physique. The fact that a number of professional athletes regular use circuit training as their primary method of working out speaks volumes as to how great and rewarding this exercising routine can be for all of us.

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