Yes I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty of times, but I must talk about it again. Circuit training or training in intervals is your key to greater fat loss, but it also helps to make you more time efficient instead of wasting precious time waiting in between exercise.
There are many variations to make sure you are begin circuit training. Although many people who go to the gym may believe they should be working with a less weight and higher reps, then head immediately to another exercise.
I’ll go against their beliefs and say you can train using more resistance, weight or your body weight challenging your muscles to work harder. If need be, you can give yourself a 10,15 even 30 second rest and move to the next exercise.
We use this same form of training in our Rapid Fat Loss Boot Camps here in Atlanta. One program design may call for 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest or recovery. The heart rate is still elevated and folks are burning tons of calories.
Circuit training proves to be greater for fat loss because of the notion called EPOC which is Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (calories being burned after you work out). You simply cannot get this through doing a slow steady aerobic training program alone.
Therefore, circuit training is the perfect ideal workout for the busy person looking to sneak a quick workout in and get back on with their busy lives. You don’t have to spend hours upon hours exercising to get the results you’re looking for. In fact, you’d be better off working out 20-30 minutes at a high intensity opposed to spending an hour to hour and half of low-moderate intensity.
So why do people exercise at low to moderate intensities? Well, quite frankly, it’s easy. Honestly, it’s really hard to convince yourself to train and push yourself to hard level. In all my years of training, I’ve come to realize that people either have to seriously motivated, crazy, have some sort of high threshold/tolerance to complete.
Most feel as if they’ve accomplished something thinking slow and steady is the pace. This could be further from the truth. If you want to maximize your fat loss efforts, you should be looking to do high intensity exercise.
Here’s a sample circuit you can follow, for big time resultd and to get your heart rate going and burn tons of fat post exercise. I’m going to share 5 Bodyweight exercises we use at Hotlanta Bodies Fit Camp. You can play with this however you want or work at your own fitness level. You can have a set number of reps and sets, or you can simply go by time. The choice is yours. The key is make sure you’re working hard enough and moving from one exercise to the next without spending minutes in between exercises.
#1 Squats
#2 Push Ups
#3 Plank (static or dynamic)
#4 Resistance Band/Dumbell Rows
#5 Mountain Climbers (10-12 each leg)
Rest 30sec-1min and repeat exercises #1-5.
Using a format like that you’ve just touched every muscle group in your body. These full body exercises allow you to burn more calories and work multiple muscle groups at once. This type of training is your best chance for greater fat loss in less time. Not sitting around waiting in between sets to work on an isolated muscle group (abs, chest, legs etc).
Yours in Fat Loss,
Benson Manento
Breakthrough Sports and Fitness
Hotlanta Bodies Fit Camp
