Circuit Training… Friend or Foe?

Amongst strength & conditioning coaches circuit training gets quite a bad rap

And in some cases… rightly so when you think about certain CrossFit or Insanity workouts

However, there is a time and a place for circuit training

But, when, how and why should we use it?

Firstly, circuit training is defined in the S&C ‘bible’ Supertraining as:

“…a routine which requires one to alternate sets between two (or a small number of) different exercises”

Circuit training can be very useful because:

• It is time efficient (perfect for people you only see for 30-60 minutes a week)
• Large groups of people can train at one time
• Multiple fitness factors can be trained using circuit training such as:
  • Strength
  • Power
  • Mobility
  • Muscular Endurance
  • Cardiovascular Stamina etc…

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• A secondary benefit of the session being in a circuit format is body-fat reduction. When a circuit  leaves a participant in a state of EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), there is an increase in fat metabolism post-training.

However, in most gym classes and with some sports teams these days circuit training isn’t being used to it’s full potential and it can be quite dangerous

It’s now quite common to think of circuit training as working for a time period on many stations of different exercises. This can be a problem to manage if you have participants of a mixed ability…

(e.g. one person can perform perfect push-ups for 30 seconds where as another person fatigues and starts violently extending the spine after 10 seconds)

Another problem with some circuit training sessions are the exercise choices. They need to be sensible…

(e.g. someone who can’t proficiently perform a full-depth bodyweight squat with control shouldn’t be doing squat jumps, box jumps or more importantly drop jumps)

Additionally, you need to ask the question: “Is this circuit training session giving what I’m not getting from my current training elsewhere?”

(e.g. If you’re an endurance athlete such as a marathon runner, why would you do a circuit of muscular endurance or cardiovascular stamina exercises? You’re best bet would be to up the intensity of your running training if you were lacking fitness in these areas)

In summary, my suggestions on how, when and why to use circuit training (yes I do use it!) would be the following:

• Focus on quality and intensity instead of quantity
  • Train less repetitions of more intense exercise (faster, higher, or with a greater resistance) on only a few stations, such as 5 stations of 5 repetitions on each exercise.
• Only use exercises in the circuit that the athlete/client/group are proficient in so they will require minimal coaching
  • This will make the quality of the circuit better and greatly reduce the risk of injury from bad technique
•   Focus your circuit on only training one main goal (maybe two at a push)
  • Don’t try to train everything in one circuit. You won’t get the results you want from it. If you want your athletes to get strong, train strength. If you want your athletes to get powerful, train power
• Ensure your circuit is training something that your client/athlete/group isn’t getting elsewhere
  • Most commonly this will be strength and/or power training. But, if you have a client that kick boxes 4 times a week but doesn’t lift weights, train them to get strong. If you have a client who sits at a desk all day and they have poor movement and posture, train mobility and get them moving properly

In S&C, it is always our goal to train our athletes fitness in it’s purest form (e.g. strength training or power training only with 3-5 minutes rest between each set and exercise, or energy system training through repeated sprinting sessions).

However, a session in a circuit training format is a great alternative to allow us to give the athlete a time-efficient session with the added secondary benefit of fat metabolism.

Until next time,

Joe Bullen MSc ASCC CSCS