Circuit Training: Strength

Train with your personal coach Lisa Wolfe. Learn the excercises and jump into the 25 minutes video session with Lisa. This workout can be performed inside or outside, during the day or at night, or in rainy weather. There is no dependence on weather, time or health club hours in order to get the workout that you need.

Circuit training is an exercise style, a type of interval training, which provides a total body workout in a quick amount of time. Another benefit is that it erases the boredom that often comes from indoor exercises, because the workouts are constantly changed. Every day the workout can be different, yet still provide the strengthening and overall body health benefits without spending two hours at a gym.

Improving your strength relies on all the muscles of the body. We use our muscles for everything from holding this book to carrying gro- ceries. One of the superior qualities of muscle tissue is its ability to burn calories 24 hours a day. This correlates to an increase in the bodyís metabolism.

What this means is that muscle tissue is burning calories for us while weíre driving, reading, watching television and sleeping. It helps to burn off the food we eat, keeping it from being stored as fat. The CV system burns off fat weíve already stored. This circuit training workout combines CV exercises and strengthening exercises for an effective workout to burn fat and increase metabolism.

Muscles respond to resistance by increasing muscle fiber size and strength, along with increasing the strength of ligaments and tendons surrounding the muscles.

Adaptation occurs quickly, especially if youíve strength trained. Muscles have magnificent memory and want to be strong for us. On the flip side, muscle degeneration occurs quickly without appropriate stimuli, causing a decrease in metabolism. Thatís a motivation to make fitness a way of life. It needs to become a habit and something to look forward to.
Unless we perform regular strength-training exercise, we lose approximately half a pound of muscle every year after age 25. After age 30, muscle mass and strength both begin to decrease. Adding a few strength-training exercises into every week will help prevent the muscle loss that naturally occurs with aging.

Circuit training is based on a set amount of time spent in different activities. It alternates bursts of intense activity with lesser intense activities. The workout consists of small stations, alternating a cardio- vascular exercise with a strengthening exercise. Once or twice through all the stations completes the circuit. The total time spent in each station can vary, but 11⁄2 minutes in each works well. The workout can last anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes depending on the needs of the day. This workout should be performed with a day of rest in between to allow muscles recovery time.

The workout can be used by anyone, at any age. For the older adult, circuit training is an ìeffective well-rounded exercise program that can be utilized as a means to improve health-related components of fitness in older adults,î according to a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology in August 2004.

Curated by:

Lisa M Wolfe

Systems:

• iPhone
• iPad