Sep 11
17
3 Tips To A Better Circuit Training Program
This is a fat loss training blog post by Grant Lofthouse
As I knew it would… the last post I did about why I think circuit training sucks really stirred the pot. So today I wanted to clear things up and put some stuff to rest.
When I mentioned ‘circuit training’, I was talking about the typical high rep, light weight, little fancy pants exercises with no rest stuff.  So what I should have mentioned in the header was ‘typical circuit training’ – maybe that would have stopped the hate mail… my bad.
Typical circuit training will get you know where, and is about as useful as Zumba.
But don’t get me wrong… I’m not completely against circuit training if it’s done the right way.
If you make a few changes (which I’m about to list below) you can make the training program pretty damn effective and lose a TON of body fat without cardio, improve strength and overall fitness. Check out the alternatives below…
1.) Lift more weight
Pretty simple, by lifting more weight you will place greater stress on the body, improve strength and muscle mass which in result will have a greater fat burning effect.
Depending on how you wana do it, the best rep range I have found have been somewhere between 3-8.
But if you lift more weight you will also have to apply tip number 2.
2.) Rest
Typical circuit training has little to no rest. When your lifting light weight and doing dummie free exercises that’s fine. But if you apply tip number 1 and start lifting more weight, you’re going to need some sort of rest in between sets so strength and form doesn’t decrease.
30-90 seconds -Â depending on what kind of exercise you performed and how heavy you went (the harder the exercise and the more weight you lift the longer you rest)Â is usually the best rest period.Â
3.) Use big compound exercises
If you take on-board the above tips… this will allow you to use more challenging, complex exercises such as squats, presses, rows, deadlifts, chins and pushups. Theses are your money exercises that produce the best bang for your buck.
2 Badass Circuit Training Programs
I thought I would help you out and include 2 better alternative ways to layout out your circuit training program. There are a ton of ways to set up a good circuit. Here’s some one’s I like…
1.) Random practice
Shea and Morgan (1979) discovered random practice – which is basically circuit training with adequate rest within the exercises and flip flopping between harder and easier exercises of the upper and lower body.
For example…
 5 Squats – rest 1-2 min
5 Bench Press – rest 1-2 min
5 Deadlift – rest 1-2 min
5 Bench Press – rest 1-2 min
That was set 1. Repeat.
This style works great for those wanting to get stronger but don’t have a lot of time to train.
The only downside is trying to occupy 3 barbells in a busy gym… If that’s the case, the next option would be better.
2. Pyramid
You can also grab 3 different exercises – 1 hard, 1 medium and 1 easy and pyramid the reps up as the exercise get easier. For example…
3 Hang cleans – rest 1-2 min
6 Goblet squats – rest 1-2 min
9+ Pushups – rest 1-2 min
That was set 1. Repeat.
This works great because you literally train everything – strength, hypertrophy and endurance…
In conclusion
Like I said I got nothing against circuit training. It allows you to get more work done in a shorter period of time. Plus it can deliever some pretty damn good results ‘provided’ it’s not the old style typical circuit training.
Stay away from that high rep, light weight shit and you’ll be doin’ alright 
 -
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