The hallowed halls of Rugby school in England -- you know the place, that famous field where C. Webb Ellis "first picked up the ball and ran" -- gave me my first introduction to the world of circuit training.
It was there, every afternoon, immediately after classes and before rugby practice began, that the school's fitness addicts would congregate at the gym for a half hour circuit session. This was no circuit for the meek: the goal of the school's physical education teachers, as far as I could tell, was to push those silly enough to try this workout into a state of complete exhaustion. To finish two rounds of Rugby's famous circuit was a feat that few athletes managed.
What could be so hard, you ask? The exact details of the workout have long passed through my memory (the body doesn't care to remember too many painful things), but I remember minute long intervals of push ups, sit ups, dips, rope climbs, box jumps, chin ups, wind sprints, and balance beam walks. Balance beam walks, you ask? This was so tough, you wonder? All I remember is the fear I felt as I climbed to the beam, which was placed a good 10 feet in the air, and wondering if my exhausted legs and arms would be able to break the fall I was sure I would make.
I never did, and my three month stint at England's famous school introduced me to many things. The most enduring, though, has been circuit training.
If you want it all -- bulging muscles, lungs that never tire, and a "ripped" physique -- circuit training is for you. What makes this form of training so revolutionary is that it is more than just a great workout. Circuit training can be done anywhere, and offers the most time efficient way to get a workout done.
You probably don't know it, but you have likely done circuit training before. Fitness trails you see in many parks are great examples of a basic circuit. Stations are set up, and you simply run from one to the other doing things like chin ups, push ups, jumps, and abdominal curls -- all separated by a short run.
By combining strength and cardiovascular exercises together with a very short recovery (if you really want to show off your stuff, you can skip the recovery completely!), you get the best of both worlds -- a muscle and stamina building workout all at once. To get the cardiovascular benefits, you need to keep your heart rate elevated for the entire set -- and that isn't always easy. The specific exercises you include in your circuit will improve your strength.
We all don't have access to gyms like the one I worked in at Rugby, but that shouldn't stop you. The only limiting factor for setting up a circuit is your imagination. Circuit training is offered at every club worth it's sweat in this country. More often than not, these circuits combine a number of weight exercises done one after the other in quick succession. Once a certain number of reps or time has been completed, you move to the next exercise.
These types of circuits can be enhanced quite easily with a few modifications. Don't just go from, say, the leg press machine to the bench press machine. Run a lap between the two. If you don't like running, jump on a bike, or grab a skipping rope for a minute or two between each exercise.
Combining weight training and cardiovascular work is one thing, but my favorite circuits have nothing to do with a weight room. Some of my best circuits have taken place in hotel rooms, city parks, and my own living room.
Typically, I map out a workout area. I might do push ups in one corner, abdominal curls in another, burpees or "Russian splits" in the centre of the room, dips using a chair or a couch, go back to my abdominal spot for another set, do another set of push ups for good measure, and finish off the entire circuit by doing "chair squats" until my quads don't like me anymore. (See key below for a definition of the different exercises.)
I either do my circuit for time or by a certain number of repetitions. Often I will work for 30 seconds, and recover for 10. Other days I will complete 15 reps of each exercise, and see how long it takes to complete the set. Then after a short break, I try to improve my time. The number of sets will depend on how much time I have, and how much my arms and legs will take!
When you do a circuit right, it is the toughest workout there is. At one club I used to work at, I set up a circuit workout three days a week in the aerobics studio. Exercise mats were used for abdominal curls and push ups. Wind sprints were done down the length of the floor. A chin-up bar was placed in one corner. There were skipping ropes, benches for dips, and a flight of stairs which we could run up and down. All told, I set up 15 exercises, and paired off the participants so there was always someone right there to keep them honest. By the end of the hour long circuit, all 30 crazy circuit types were completely exhausted.
Which is exactly the way I always felt in that old gym in England. Mr. Ellis might have run with the ball and created a new sport, but I will always remember Rugby school for so much more -- my introduction to the best workout I know.