Circuit training (CT) can be an effective fitness tool for women seeking to maximize results.
Whether those results are weight loss, general conditioning or sports specific, circuit training may be just what you need.
What Is Circuit Training?
It is a set number of exercises (usually no more than 5 in total) to be completed as one circuit. There is very little rest time between circuits, aimed at raising metabolism to burn calories.
Once completed, participants move on to the next circuit of exercises.
This form of exercise combines resistance training with high intensity/short duration aerobic activity.
It may seem intimidating for the uninitiated, but the challenging circuits are easily geared towards even the most unfit in the group.
The idea behind CT is that participants switch quickly from one exercise to the next, from resistance training activity (i.e. push ups) to an aerobic station such as (i.e. burpees) with short rest breaks between circuits (‘short’ being the key word here).
Why Circuit Training Is Good For Women
-
CT can shift stubborn fat deposits
Women have specific needs when it comes to weight loss and general well-being. A woman in her 40s and 50s generally will have a more difficult time of losing weight than a woman in her 20s or 30s. This is due mainly to the effects of menopause – a lower metabolism that results in weight gain, fatigue etc.
Metabolism declines with age. The resting metabolic rate (RMR – the energy required of the body to function at rest),can decline about 5% each decade past the 30 year age mark. In other words, a woman in her 30s will burn up to 100 fewer calories each day. By the time she is 40, that same woman can experience a weight gain of about five kilos or more.
CT can raise RMR by combining high intensity resistance with aerobic activity.
By raising RMR the body is able to burn fat longer throughout the day, hours after completing the workout.
-
Improve Your Aerobic Fitness
Heart disease is the number one killer for women aged 45+ and more women than men die from this condition. Therefore, circuit training makes good sense for improving cardiac fitness.
The very nature of circuit training being short-sharp bursts of activity, ensures your heart rate is raised to around 80- 85% of your maximum. In other words, the body is forced to move in such a way as to make you puff and sweat without leaving you fatigued.
When this occurs the cardio-pulmonary system (heart and lungs) is being exercised in much the same way as the rest of your body. The body’s aerobic capacity is raised giving you a stronger heart and lungs.
A stronger cardio-pulomonary system helps improve skin, hair, muscle tone, increases energy, and improves sleep patterns.
-
CT Boosts Muscle Strength and Bone Density
Most women will lose up to 5% of muscle mass (the amount of muscle the body has) each decade from aged 40 onwards. A woman will lose even more muscle mass when aged 50+.
Along with muscle loss a woman also experiences a loss of bone density. Bone loss begins at about 35 years of age for most women and proceeds slowly until menopause when bone depletion accelerates quickly after that.
CT with its formula of combining resistance exercises with cardio activity, will help raise muscle mass and bone density to healthy levels.
Moreover, the more muscle mass a woman has the less body fat she has to carry.
The Best Way to do CT
-
Take a CT class
To maximise the results you want the best way to do circuit training is by joining a class.
There are many fitness outlets providing this form of exercise either indoors or outdoors in local parks or at the beach.
A supervised class with professionally qualified instructors will also ensure you are doing the exercises safely and with proper technique. Instructors give you the much-needed motivation that may be lacking if done on your own.
-
Intervals for Aerobic
Ensure the aerobic exercises include intervals such as 30-second sprints on the beach mixed with short rest periods of walking.
-
Lift Something Heavy
Resistance exercises that involve lifting weights or your own body weight. Choose a weight that will challenge your body but that you also can control properly throughout the designated time frame. The resistance exercises are designed to develop good muscle density to burn fat, and also build strong bones to ward off osteoporosis.
-
Keep Rest Periods Short
If you are taking it easy with the exercises, then keep the rest periods extremely short – say about 10 seconds. As your strength improves and the exercise intensity increases, the rest periods will need to be lengthened to help you recover (about 30 seconds).
However, rest periods are ALWAYS shorter than the time spent exercising to help you maximize results.
-
Choose Full Body Exercises
Choose compound exercises for best results. This means exercises that use more than one joint and more than one muscle. For example, the squat shoulder press is a compound exercise that involves several joints and muscles to shift your body weight up and down and lift the dumbbell above your head. Compare this to the isolation exercise of a bicep curl where only one muscle (biceps femoris) and one joint (the elbow) is moving. You will never burn fat doing bicep curls but you will burn enormous amounts doing squats with a shoulder press.
Tips for First-Timers
If you are new to circuit training the best introduction to this form of exercise is by attending a Circuit class led by a qualified instructor.
Let the instructor know that you are new to CT. In this way the instructor can modify the moves according to your fitness level.
While circuit training is intense it is easily adaptable to your fitness level. Newcomers simply use less weight and perform modified moves to an exercise until strength and confidence levels
improve. More advanced participants simply lift heavier weights or attempt to perform more repetitions within the determined time frame.
Be attentive to how you feel as CT can be quite challenging and fast-paced. If you feel overwhelmed by the pace of the circuit, then simply slow it down and do the exercises you feel more accomplished in completing.
N.B. CT is not suitable for people recovering from an injury/surgery, suffer from pelvic floor laxity, or who have chronic conditions (i.e. arthritis).
Summary
Circuit training can be an excellent way to break the boredom, boost fitness, or overcome a weight loss hurdle.
If you have never exercised, the best introduction to circuit training is to join a circuit class. A good instructor will be aware of your fitness level and will be able to adjust the exercises accordingly.
CT will burn hundreds of calories and help strength muscles and improve bone density – two key factors women require from the age of 35 onwards.
Remember to stretch regularly to reduce the risk of injuries, and also aim to include 2 extra aerobic sessions per week separate from the circuit training.
