Functional Strength Training Exercises for the Core

Functional training is simply an exercise philosophy that seeks to replicate real-life movements that you can use in your daily activities. For a female firefighter, functional training might be running stairs, dead lifts to mimic picking up an injured victim, or pull ups, chin ups and muscle ups to replicate climbing ladders or pulling herself over a window sill. Functional training is in direct opposition to traditional weight-training, generally thought to be performing exercises on machines that isolate individual muscles. Seldom does real-life activity require work from just one small muscle group, however. Muscle groups are designed to work in a synchronous fashion, and functional training aims to capture this as much as possible.

Core training is actually one of the most misused terms in the fitness industry. When most people think of “core,” they think of abs, and maybe the lower back. Core is a sports term that actually refers to the primary muscles involved in a particular sport movement. For example, an Olympic sprinter’s core muscles would be primarily the quadriceps, hamstrings and gastrocnemius. As a graduate student, I interned with the University of Portland as a strength and conditioning assistant where I was lucky enough to work with their National Championship women’s soccer team. I noticed that I never once saw this team performing traditional ab exercises, such as crunches, sit ups, or any other exercise that isolated the abs. When I asked the head strength and conditioning coach about this, he said he felt ab exercises were overrated, and that by performing more advanced lifts correctly, you’re indirectly working out the abs anyways. As with all functional training, the abs are designed to work in unison with other muscle groups — helping to connect the upper and lower body — and it makes no sense to train them in isolation.

Therefore, to develop “core” muscles in a functional way, you don’t need to perform classic ab exercises. Instead, focus on these more total-body exercises that will help you perform your daily activities with more ease and efficiency, and with less fatigue and risk of injury.

Squats

It seems counter-intuitive, but squats can help you build your ab and lower back muscles. By tucking in your abs, arching your lower back and maintaining good posture throughout the exercise, you will promote stability and support in the spine. Contract your abs, place your hands behind your head to open up your chest and promote better posture and squat down to parallel every repetition.

Pushups

Once again, it seems counterintuitive, but keeping your abs contracted and tight, your back slightly arched and your back straight during a pushup will develop abdominal strength. Focus on performing pushups correctly, with your chest nearly touching the ground, your body as flat as a table and fully extending your arms and you’ll help promote core strength.

Plank

Perhaps no other exercise is more effective for developing the real-life postural support you need in your daily life than the plank. Perform the classic plank by resting on your elbows, with your body off the ground and in a straight line, and maintaining balance on the tips off your toes. Hold this position for at least 30 seconds, and up to several minutes. Variations of the plank include side plank, straight-armed plank and one-handed plank.

Overhead Press

Any resistance training exercise that requires lifting weight over your head places an incredible demand on the lower back. Sufficient strength in the abs can help you maintain posture and protect the spine. Keep your stomach tight and lower back arched while lifting weight directly over your head to develop the functional strength you need in your abs. Start with just light weight, place your feet shoulder-width apart, or slightly wider, and maintain a very straight, rigid posture.

Specific Ab Exercises

For those women who feel they must perform at least one or two specific ab exercises to get a six-pack, here are two of the best. The key with these specific ab exercises, however, is repetitions. Specific ab exercises do not increase strength much, but can help you build endurance. Always perform as many repetitions as you can (a minimum of 12 to 15 repetitions).

Crunches

No surprise here. This tried and true exercise will ultimately help you develop ripped abs. Place your hands across your chest, not behind your head (it’s not a neck exercise). Go up just far enough until you feel your abs contract and then slowly let yourself back down.

Russian Twists

I once had a client tell me she would not do any exercise with the word “Russian” in the title. These actually aren’t that bad, and will target the obliques, those long muscles on either size of the rectus abdominus. Sit on the back of your buttocks, keep your feet off the ground (crossing them helps), place your hands together and touch the ground on either side of your body as fast as you can for as many repetitions as possible.

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In his book, “The Essence of Bodyweight Training,” Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist Juan Carlos Santana regales of the time he and his fellow coaches designed and implemented one of the most successful conditioning programs ever for a large high school in Florida. Several of the athletic teams at this high school went on to win championships that year, and Santana was lauded for his fitness contributions. There was just one caveat. The school had no weight room. No benches, no barbells, no dumbbells, and certainly no squat racks, Smith machines or elaborate cardiovascular equipment.

Basically, all Santana and his staff had to work with were the athletes’ bodies. And that’s what they did. Using just the individual athletes’ bodyweight as resistance, Santana ingeniously replicated or replaced nearly all of the common weightlifting maneuvers performed by a typical athletic program in a gym. Santana now swears by bodyweight training and, unless absolutely necessary, advocates just the use of bodyweight for most athletes.

Weightlifting, Santana says, makes you a better and stronger weightlifter, but bodyweight training makes you a better athlete. When you’re performing the bench press, you’re practically isolating the pectoral muscles. When you’re performing a pushup, however, you’re forcing the small stabilizer muscles in the shoulders and arms to maintain postural support and balance, while also improving strength in the pectorals. The latter has far better transference to real life athletic movements and can also help you build lean muscle.

The pushup is easily the best and most effective bodyweight exercise for targeting the chest and shoulder muscles. Here is a progression of pushup exercises, with increasing difficulty, that will teach you how to build muscles fast (leans ones in fact), without ever needing to go to a gym.

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1. Pushups

Yep, we’ve all done them. Some of us would rather do a bench press or incline press than this dreaded exercise, but pushups are a tried and true method of building strong arms and chest muscles. Do pushups every day and do a lot of them. Also, make sure you perform them correctly. Your chest should almost reach the floor, your back and buttocks should be in a straight line and you should not dip or raise your lower back. If you want to build lean chest and arm muscles without weights, start here.

Perform 3 sets of as many pushups as you can daily, until you can do about 40 to 50 repetitions in a row.

2. Weighted Pushups

When you’ve mastered the pushup and can easily perform 40 to 50 repetitions, you’ll want to consider increasing the load of this exercise. Add a backpack, or have a partner apply pressure to your back as you perform pushups to increase the resistance and reap further muscular adaptations. You can even have a partner sit on your back.

Begin by adding just 10 lbs. of resistance of some form. Perform 3 sets of 6 to 12 repetitions to increase the size of your chest and shoulder muscles. Add 10 more lbs. of resistance when you can perform two repetitions beyond your target number for two consecutive sets. Over the course of several weeks, work your way up until you can perform a pushup with additional resistance equivalent to your body weight.

3. Clap Pushups

When you have reached a sufficient level of strength, you can being to attempt this difficult plyometric maneuver. Begin a clap pushup as you would a normal pushup, but at the bottom of the exercise, explosively drive your body off the ground with your arms and attempt to clap at the top of the exercise.

Warning: You need to be strong and quick to try this, as it can be hard on the shoulders. Only attempt this plyometric exercise when you can perform a pushup using 1.5 times your body weight. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs., you need to be able to perform a pushup with the equivalent of 225 lbs. of resistance. Because when you perform a pushup, you’re lifting about half your body weight, you’d need to be able to do a pushup with 150 additional lbs. of resistance.

4. One-Armed Pushups

They’re performed just like they sound and they can significantly increase the load you place on the pectoral and deltoid muscles on each respective side of the body. Like clap pushups, they’re also extremely difficult. You’ll need to center your arm between your pectoral muscles and rotate your body slightly on the way up to promote balance. Otherwise, a one-armed pushup is performed just like a classic pushup.

Begin by performing 3 sets of as many one-armed pushups as you can on each side. Work your way up until you can perform 3 sets of 6 to 12 repetitions on each side.

5. One-Armed Weighted Pushups

Just like two-armed weighted pushups, add resistance to this exercise to increase the difficulty. Start by adding just 5 lbs. of resistance to each side, and work your way up until you can perform 3 sets of 6 to 12 repetitions. Add 5 additional lbs. when you can perform two repetitions beyond your target number for two consecutive sets.

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By now, you’re probably in the fitness minority if you haven’t heard about Crossfit and the functional fitness revolution. Elaborate gyms lined with row after row of various exercise machines and cardio equipment have taken a back seat to simple “box” gyms with nothing more than some medicine balls, free-weights, ropes, kettlebells and maybe some rowing ergometers. But how effective is functional fitness? Can rusty kettlebells and old ropes really provide the same benefit as a treadmill and an incline row machine?

Let me first state that I love Crossfit. I love it for its culture of simplicity and minimalism, as well as for the improvements I’ve seen in my own fitness level as a result of following its program. However, as a fitness professional, I know that all fitness programs must meet three tried-and-true principles in order to be maximally effective: specificity, overload, and progression.

“Regardless of the type of training program, there are three foundational principles that always apply: specificity, overload, and progression. A lack of attention to any of these principles often produces less than desirable training outcomes and sometimes injury,” says the National Strength and Conditioning Association in its book, “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning.”

So how does Crossfit stack up to these principles?

Specificity

The NSCA defines specificity as a “method whereby an athlete is trained in a specific manner to produce a specific adaptation or training outcome.” Essentially, to become a better runner, you need to run. To improve your bench press, you need to keep practicing the bench press.

Crossfit is general, rather than specific. Originally targeted toward police, firemen and the military, Crossfit’s program focuses on whole-body movements that can be applied to a variety of real-life skills, such as carrying a wounded victim down a flight of stairs. To quote the Crossfit website: “Our specialty is not specializing.”

Overload

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Overload refers to increasing the training stimulus beyond what your body is used to. You need to continually overload your body to see new gains in strength, endurance and muscle growth. Through our body’s natural response to physical stress, known as the General Adaptation Syndrome, we grow bigger muscle fibers, recruit more motor units and develop bigger and more efficient hearts. What doesn’t kill us in training, within reason, makes us stronger.

Crossfit does overload to some extent, but it depends on a number of individual factors. Crossfit’s one-size-fits-all approach to fitness may be overload some and under-load others. Crossfit does follow a general program that allows for rest and recovery of certain muscle groups. However, without knowing the individual exerciser’s needs, it’s difficult to know which muscle groups really need rest and how much, as well as when to increase the load of a specific exercise.

Progression

The program must become increasingly difficult in order to see continued gains in performance, according to the NSCA. Dr. Tudor Bompa coined the term “periodization,” to illustrate how a training program should progress throughout the year. The body can lose its ability to adapt when the program remains stagnant, and the trainer or coach needs to know when to alter the volume and intensity of the workouts to either make the program more difficult or provide rest.

Crossfit’s program design is non-linear. There may be day-to-day variety in the difficulty of workouts, but there is generally no steady line of increasing difficulty. Opting for general, all-around fitness and an inclusive program design, Crossfit’s “workouts of the day,” or WODs, do not increase in difficulty over a long period of time. However, you can keep track of your own progress and increase difficulty as you see fit.

Conclusions

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Crossfit will almost certainly get you in shape. Following Crossfit’s WODs will likely allow you to learn a variety of difficult movements and will make you an all-round better athlete. However, if you have a very specific goal for training, rather than to simply become “hardcore,” Crossfit probably isn’t for you. If you’re a high school wrestler, following Crossfit’s WODs probably won’t provide the most optimal plan to peak you at the right time of the year. If you have a goal of losing a certain amount of weight, Crossfit will definitely help, but you will spend a lot of time performing unnecessary and difficult strength-training exercises.

Finally, Crossfit’s violation of the NSCA’s training principles, and its sometimes illogical workout design, may place you at an increased risk of injury. For example, can you perform 20 pullups, 25 ring-dips, 30 kettlebell swings and 20 hang cleans as fast as you can, right now? That describes just half of a recent Crossfit WOD. Did you also make sure to warm up first and cool down afterwards?

Crossfit is cool. It’s a fun and macho fitness counterculture that will likely get you in shape. But make sure to approach the WODs with caution. Scale back on the sets/reps/load when needed and spend ample time mastering the technique of each lift. And if you’re an athlete or just an average exerciser with some specific goals, you’re better off getting a trainer who has the skills and expertise to take your specific abilities and limitations into account.

Photo © Norlando Pobre

Sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight, and 31% are obese. This represents a national health problem, with many personal and social implications. Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 25-29.9, and obesity is defined by as BMI > or equal to 30. BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. Click here for a BMI calculator! It is important to note that this is a very general method of calculating body mass, and is not especially accurate in athletic populations. Many health problems are associated with obesity, such as hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, infertility, and cancer. If you are overweight or obese, you CAN take steps lose weight and improve your health. Use these guidelines to help reach your goals!

EXERCISE GUIDELINES

• Begin slow: always start with a warm-up of 5-10 minutes of exercise at about 40% – 60% of your heart rate reserve (HRR). Heart rate reserve is the difference between your maximum and your resting heart rate. Click here to calculate your target heart rate ranges.
• Gradually increase the intensity: spend the majority of your training session working out at 50% – 70% HRR. To maintain this heart rate range, do moderate intensity aerobic exercises, or try circuit training to combine aerobic and resitance training.
• Cool-down: spend another 5-10 minutes cooling down, again working between 40% – 60% of your HRR.
• Exercise frequently: 5-7 days per week
• Workouts should be 40-60 minutes in length

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

• Exercise needs to be combined to a healthy diet to reach your weight-loss goals. A general recommendation is to burn 500 calories more than you consume each day. To calculate the amount of calories you burn in one day, click here! Fat intake in your diet should not exceed 30% of your total calories consumed. Emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein in your diet.

• Consider hiring a personal trainer to help guide you and tailor an exercise program to your specific needs.
• Make sure your footwear is supportive and appropriate while exercising.

• Swimming and aquatic exercises are a great option for people with musculoskeletal injuries, and can be a great way to begin exercising.

RISKS AND PRECAUTIONS

Before beginning any exercise program it is important to contact your doctor to ensure safety. STOP exercising if:

• You experience chest pain or severe shortness of breath
• You feel dizzy or light-headed

• You are experiencing moderate or severe pain

As I mentioned last time, before you begin, it is important to make sure that the ball is the right size for you. Generally, if your hips are slightly higher than your knees while sitting on the ball, it is an appropriate size. Check it out!

Follow this circuit, performing each exercise in order. After completing one set of each exercise, take a 30 second rest, then we’ll repeat it two more times (taking another 30 second rest after the 2nd set), modifying as suggested or as you are able. There are 7 exercises, so keep the pace!

THE CIRCUIT

Ball Pushups

• 1st set: Perform 10 pushups with your hands on the ball and your feet on the ground. Try to limit how much the ball moves.
• 2nd set: This time perform 10 pushups with your feet on the ball and your hands on the ground (as demonstrated in the picture).
• 3rd set: From the same starting position as the 2nd set, lift your right foot off the ball (so only your left foot is stabilizing), and perform 5 pushups. Switch legs and perform 5 more.

Supine Supported Bridging (balance and strength/stability)

• 1st set: Lie with your shoulders, head, and neck supported by the ball and your feet resting on the ground. Lift your pelvis (using your hamstrings and glutes, not your back!) so that your thighs and torso are in a straight line (like a table). Maintain this position while you alternate picking up one foot at a time and placing it back down. You can use your elbows against the ball to stabilize yourself the first time, but as you improve try to use your elbows less. Keep your pelvis level as you alternate legs. Perform 10 repetitions with each leg.
• 2nd and 3rd set: Perform as you did during the first set, but this time simultaneously reach behind you with the opposite arm (for example, when you pick your left foot up off the floor, reach behind you with your right arm). To help stabilize, really focus on pushing into the ground with the foot that remains on the ground, to initiate a contraction that will integrate your trunk.

Pikes

• 1st and 2nd sets: “Bent-knee Pikes”: Roll out over the ball into the same position you were in while doing the 2nd and 3rd set of pushups. Stabilizing thru your arms, roll the ball towards your arms by bringing your knees to your chest. Maintain a neutral spine throughout this motion. Slowly roll the ball back to the starting position. Repeat10 times.
• 3rd set: Perform 10 times, keeping your legs straight (as seen in the picture).

Single-leg Hamstring Curls

• All sets: Lie on your back with your heels resting on the ball and your legs straight. Pick one leg up off of the ball, and perform a bridge. Maintaining that bridge, use your hamstrings to curl the ball in towards your body and back out again 10 times using one leg. Use your arms/hands for stability/balance as much as you need to. When you get more comfortable, decrease how much you use your hands to balance.

Supine Bridging with Rotations

• All Sets: Start with your shoulders, head, and neck supported by the ball and your feet resting on the ground. Lift your pelvis (using your hamstrings and glutes, not your back!) so that your thighs and torso are in a straight line (same position as supine supported bridging). This time clasp your hands up above you directly above your chest, keeping your arms straight. Stabilize thru your legs as you rotate onto your right shoulder (your clasped hands will now be facing 90 degrees to your right) so that your shoulders are stacked vertically on top of one another. Pause, then return to the starting position. Repeat to your left. Always pause in the middle to control your momentum and to avoid falling off of the ball. Repeat 10 times to each side and then take a break.

Side Planks on Ball

• All sets: Assume a side plank position with your forearm on the exercise ball and your feet on the ground. Stack your feet on top of each other, or to make it a little easier you can stagger your stance. Hold for 30 seconds.

Front Plank on Ball

• 1st set: Similar to the pushup position on the ball, but this time rest on your forearms. Hold for 30 seconds. Make sure your low back isn’t “sagging”.
• 2nd and 3rd set: Hold for 30 seconds, and try lifting one foot off the ground for 5 seconds at a time. As you lift one foot off of the ground, try to keep your pelvis and low back stable, with as little movement/weight shifting as possible.

As always, remember to go at your own pace. This workout offers suggestions for training with an exercise ball. Modifications can and should be made to accomodate your specific needs. Times can be decreased or increased, positions can be modified, repetitions can be increased or decreased, etc…

Have a great workout!

First and foremost, I am a runner.  Incorporating running into my exercise routine is easy for me.  Like a lot of runners, however, I neglect other important areas of fitness like strength training, core strengthening, and flexibility.

Sometimes I’ll start a run and tell myself that I’m going to do a quick upper body circuit afterward.  This rarely comes to fruition.  Whether you’re a runner or just a busy person who struggles to find time to exercise, here’s a quick way to obliterate your entire upper body:

1. Pick five of these variations.
2. Do 10 reps of each variation with little to no rest in between.
3. Take a two-minute rest and repeat the circuit.
4. Too hard?  Reduce the number of reps or add rest in between each variation.
5. Too easy?  Add a sixth variation, more reps, or do a third circuit.

The Basic Push-Up

This is a good place to start because it’s the easiest and everyone knows how to do it.  Keep your butt down and your core engaged.

The Incline Push-Up

This is just like a normal push-up except you will position your hands on a raised object, usually a bench, instead of the floor.  For safest execution, and to keep the focus of the exercise on your chest, make sure your arms are perpendicular to your body when they are fully extended.  You can vary the height of the bench to hit different areas of the chest and to create varying levels of difficulty.

The Incline Push-Up

The Decline Push-Up

Instead of putting your hands on a bench, flip around and prop your feet up on the bench this time, with your hands positioned on the floor. As with the incline push-up, you can vary the height to your liking.

The Decline Push-Up

The Diamond Push-Up

This one will obliterate your triceps.  From the basic push-up position, bring your hands together so that your two thumbs are touching and your two index fingers are touching (in the shape of a diamond).

The Diamond Push-Up

The Rotational Push-Up

While you’re bombarding your chest, you might as well give a little extra attention to your core as well.  To execute this one:

1. Perform a basic push-up.
2. At the top of the movement, take your left hand off the floor and rotate your body into a side plank position.  You will be supporting your entire body with just your right hand on the floor.
3. Hold for a split second and return to the basic push-up position.
4. Then repeat on the other side.

The Rotational Push-Up

The Elevated Wall Push-Up

This is one of my absolute favorites and great for your core as well.  To execute, position your feet against a wall so that, when your arms are fully extended, your body is parallel to the floor.  Don’t be surprised if you can’t do as many reps with this one.  It is a truly advanced exercise.

The Elevated Wall Push-Up

The Offset Push-Up

Time to hit the shoulders a little bit, too.  With your hands directly under your shoulders in basic push-up position, march your right hand out away from your body about 3-4 inches.  Now execute your push-up.  This will work your left shoulder.  Do five on this side and then repeat on the other side.  As with all of these exercises, stick with a comfortable range of motion and do not hyperextend.

The Offset Push-Up

The Knuckle Push-Up

Aside from making you feel like a total BEAST, knuckle push-ups are another great way to isolate your shoulders.  Get into basic push-up position.  Only this time, you will be on your fists.  If you want to make it even more challenging, move your hands 3-4 inches back toward your waist.  This will put much more emphasis on those shoulder muscles.

The Knuckle Push-Up

The Push-Up With Row

A true total upper body push-up, get yourself a couple lightweight dumbbells.  The amount of the weight is pretty irrelevant.  With your hands resting on top of your dumbbells, do a basic push-up.  At the top of the movement, execute a row with your left hand.  All of your weight will be supported by your right hand and your core will be heavily engaged.  Lower your left hand and then repeat on the other side.

The Push-Up with Row

Summary

Bodyweight exercises are fantastic ways to build strength and tone muscles.  Push-ups are the most tried and true of all bodyweight exercises.  They don’t require any fancy equipment and you can literally roll out of bed and start hammering them out.  Find yourself a good routine, add variation, and you will undoubtedly get stronger.

This month’s “30 minute workout” will focus on the biceps.  However, no muscle works in isolation, so while all of these exercises will integrate the biceps, this is not your typical isolated biceps workout.”Relatively” isolated biceps exercises are intermixed with various other exercises that incorporate the bicepsinto larger movement patterns.  Disclaimer…for this workout you’ll need a gym membership…sorry!  I suggest you find a place in the gym where you can set up this circuit.

Follow this circuit, performing each exercise in order.  After completing one set of each exercise, take a 30 second rest, then we’ll repeat it two more times (taking another 30 second rest after the 2nd set), modifying as suggested or as you are able.

THE WORKOUT

Pull-ups

• 1st set: perform 10 pull-ups with your arms out slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your palms facing away from you (pronated grip).  Use a pull-up machine with a weight-stack for assistance if you need it (see picture).
• 2nd set: perform 10 pull-ups with your arms about shoulder width apart and your palms facing you (supinated grip).  This grip REALLY targets the biceps!
• 3rd set: perform 10 pull-ups with your arms shoulder width apart and palms facing each other (neutral grip).  If your pullup bar does not have this option, perform 2nd set variation again.

Biceps Curls - Use dumbbells of sufficient weight to challenge you.  You should be very tired after 10 repetitions.

• 1st set: hold dumbells in each arm.  Alternate curls in standing, 10 repetitions each side, without swinging from your legs or low back to create momentum.
• 2nd set: alternate curls, 10 repetitions each arm, while standing on your right leg (emphasizes balance and decreases your ability to compensate by creating momentum).
• 3rd set: alternate curls while standing on your left leg.

Dumbell Bent-over Row - Using a dumbell.  

• 1st – 3rd set: use a flat bench.  Kneel on the bench with your left knee, and rest your left hand on top of the bench.  Keep your right leg straight and on the ground.  Hold the dumbell in your right hand.  Make sure your back is in a neutral, un-weighted position.  Pull the dumbell up until it touches your side.  Slowly lower dumbell back to the floor.  Perform 10 repetitions with each arm.

Machine Row - There are a variety of machines, such as the one in the picture below, that you can utilize for this exercise.

• 1st – 3rd set: perform 10 repetitions of rows, keeping your shoulders relaxed and elbows in towards your side as you pull back.  Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together.

Reverse Biceps Curls - Use a barbell with sufficient weight to challenge you.  You should be tired after 10 repetitions.

• 1st-3rd set: perform 10 curls.  Your hands should be shoulder width apart, and holding the bar with palms facing down (reverse/pronated grip).  Curl up, keeping the elbows in against the sides, without swinging from your legs or low back to create momentum.

If you get done before 30 minutes, great!  Do another set!

Remember to go at your own pace.  This workout is designed to target the biceps while incorporating the shoulders and upper/mid back.  Modifications can and should be made to accomodate your specific needs.  Times can be decreased or increased, positions can be modified, repetitions can be increased or decreased, etc…

Have a great workout!

There are many benefits to circuit training. It is fun, can be performed alone or in groups, allows for a large variety of exercises/movements, is a great way to get a whole-body workout, and can expedite any training session! Most importantly, circuit training exercise routines are functional, as they target both our aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems.

Energy Metabolism 101

When we train, our bodies function along a continuum of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. (There is a third primary pathway, the creatine-phosphate system, but we will not discuss that here). Generally, aerobic metabolism supplies most of our ATP for long duration, low intensity activities. This is because the body has enough time to transport oxygen to the working muscles (hence aerobic). In aerobic metabolism fats, carbohydrates, and, to a very small extent, proteins, are converted to ATP to meet the energy demands of the activity. As the intensity of an activity increases, and the amount of oxygen available is no longer sufficient to sustain aerobic metabolism, there is a shift to anaerobic metabolism. Carbohydrates are the sole source of ATP production under anaerobic metabolism, and lactic acid is the by-product (lactic acid causes muscle fatigue and soreness). We are never using just one metabolic pathway or the other. Rather we are using different proportions of each pathway depending on the intensity and duration of each activity.

Life demands a balance between these two systems. Circuit training targets each metabolic pathway through the principle of ‘active rest’. Each exercise in a circuit targets a different muscle group or movement, allowing certain muscle groups to rest while others are working. This type of training favors anaerobic metabolism in the working muscle groups while the entire system is stressed continuously, integrating aerobic metabolism. Because of its ability to trigger aerobic metabolism and anaerobic metabolism at the same time, circuit training is often used to supplement a weight loss exercise routine. Some personal trainers even recommend circuit training as exercise routines for women who want to tone up their shape.

HOW TO CIRCUIT TRAIN?

Circuit training is easy to do, and can be done anywhere. Here are some things to consider when setting up your circuit:

• Warm-up: this should be low-intensity and gradual, 5-10 minutes; include activities such as jogging or gentle stretching.  A proper warm-up increases blood flow to working muscles, increases elasticity in those muscles, and ‘primes’ the body for physical activity.
• Available resources: do you have access to equipment at a gym, or do you simply have your body-weight?  Either way, you can create a circuit!. A gym workout routine is preferred over a body-weight workout routine because the more equipment you have access too, the greater the potential variety for your circuits.
• Exercise stations: once you know what resources you have available to you, choose exercises that target large muscle groups, such as push-ups or squats.  Try to pick exercises that target different muscle groups to add variety.  Each exercise chosen will be considered a station.  See sample circuit below for an example.
• Circuit progression: here are two options for progressing through your cicuit:

1. By repetition: decide to perform a certain number of repetitions at each station before moving to the next one (for example; 10 repetitions at each station).
2. By time: decide to remain at each station for a specified duration (for example; 30 seconds at each station).  For group circuit training, this method generally works better.

• Rest time: remember to move from one station to the other without a rest.  This allows for ‘active rest’ and combined emphasis on the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems.  However, after completing the entire circuit (every station), it is a good idea to take a break.  Recommendations for rest durations vary, but rest at least one or two minutes.
• Circuit repetitions: decide how many time you are going to complete the circuit.
• Cool-down: take 5-10 minutes to jog, walk, or stretch to get your heart rate back down to baseline.

SAMPLE CIRCUIT

1. Station 1: push-ups (targets chest, arms, core)
2. Station 2: free squats (targets legs in sagital plane, core)
3. Station 3: side planks with leg lift (targets core and hip stability/strength)
4. Station 4: pull-ups (targets upper back, arms, core)
5. Station 5: lateral lunges (targets legs with lateral movement, core)
6. Station 6: jump rope (mild plyometric-type activity; agility training targeting quickness)

For Medium Intensity = Spend 45 seconds at each station > Rest 2 minutes after circuit completion > Repeat circuit 5 times

Other Recommendations

• Remember to emphasize different muscle groups at each exercise station in order get the best whole-body workout you can.  Also, feel free to integrate different techniques such as plyometrics, pilates, or yoga postures at the different stations. With enough variation, your daily exercise routine can just be a bunch of different circuit training routines.
• Start slow!  If you are new to working out, don’t overdo it.  For example: set up 4 exercise stations, spend 30 seconds at each station, and repeat the circuit 3 times with a 5 minute rest between circuit repetitions.
• Keep track of your progress
• For aerobic and resistance training guidelines, read this article!
• Make sure you have some whey protein readily available for post-workout recovery protein shakes.
• For people with an aggressive weight loss goal, check out how to lose weight fast by adding the right supplements to your circuit training.