Senior man doing squats and exercising in living room at ome
In our continuing series on home-based training, we wanted to offer a review on maximizing your efforts spent in your workout. While circuit training certainly isn’t new to the fitness industry, we found history going back to the 1950s, we did want to get a contemporary perspective since opinions change with the times. To that extent, we asked our team PT, Eugenie, on How to Get Started with Home-Based Circuit Training.
What is Circuit Training?
Circuit training is a highly effective solution to have, whether you’re at the gym or with a home-based program. It’s easy to design a circuit training workout, it’s incredibly time-efficient, and is flexible. You can practice it with dumbbells or simple bodyweight exercises, making it great for any workout or fitness level.
Circuit training is when you alternate between different exercises that target various body parts. During a circuit training workout, you challenge different muscle groups with as little rest as possible.
For example, one exercise could be squat jumps and the next pull-ups. This way, your arms rest while your legs are targeted during squat jumps, and your legs rest while your arms work during pull-ups. Besides your muscles being targeted, this form of training also keeps your heart rate up while boosting your metabolism.
A typical circuit training session will consist of 5 to 10 exercises, performed one after the other with as little rest in between as possible. You can easily practice this exercise method at home by only doing various bodyweight exercises or adding extra weight like resistance bands, dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, and kettlebells.
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4 Suggestions to Get Started
1. Always warm-up before and stretch after
Like any other workout, it’s crucial to warm your body prior to working out to prevent injury and activate your muscles to get the most from your workouts. You can simply do 1 or 2 minutes of skipping, jumping jacks, running, or walking.
Also, remember always to stretch afterward. By stretching you increase the circulation to the targeted muscles and stimulate faster repair and recovery after workouts. It also ensures that you maintain normal and flexible ranges to prevent injury and improve posture.
2. Choose 5 to 10 exercises
This step is essential to start planning your workout. You will need to choose 5 to 10 exercises and decide how you will perform them in your workout. To target all your muscle groups, you should alternate between different exercises working different body parts. First, start by making a list of your favorite exercises for each body part. For example, here are my go-to exercises:
- Legs – Squats, Squat jumps, Jumping lunges, Walking lunges, Reverse lunges, Bulgarian lunges, Deadlifts, Step-ups, Frog squats, Wall squats.
- Upper Body – Push-ups, Pull-ups, Diver push-ups, Commando Planks, Tricep dips, Dumbbell rows, Arnold shoulder presses.
- Core – Sit-ups, Bicycle crunches, Dead-bug exercise, Plank side dips, Side-plank knee to elbow crunch, Russian twists, Leg raises.
- Cardio – Jumping jacks, Skipping rope, Running, Mountain climbers, High knees, Tuck jumps.
Now that you’ve made a list of your favorite exercises, it’s time to arrange and plan your workout in the order illustrated below:
- Station 1: both legs (e.g., squats)
- Station 2: arms (e.g., push-ups)
- Station 3: single leg (e.g., Bulgarian squat)
- Station 4: core (e.g., bicycle crunches)
- Station 5: cardio (e.g., jumping jacks)
- Station 6-10: repeat steps 1-5 and simply choose different exercises.
This order will ensure you target all body parts while providing sufficient rest in between. So, while you do station 2, your legs will have time to rest and vice versa. Check out another of our time efficient circuit training workouts here.
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3. Practice good form
When it comes to execution, it’s crucial to perform each exercise using the correct technique. This way, you’ll utilize your body’s mechanics as it’s designed to perform and prevent injuries simultaneously.
4. Limit rest in between exercises
This step is another important aspect of circuit training. You need to limit the rest between each exercise, so try to perform each exercise back-to-back without any rest. Then, rest 1 minute after completing one circuit, and repeat the circuit once or twice more.
This is what makes circuit training special. You’re practically resting muscle groups by alternating between different body parts. Yet, your heart rate remains high, working your cardiovascular fitness and endurance.
Final Thoughts on How to Get Started with Home-Based Circuit Training
Circuit training has many benefits, whether you use it at the home or gym. You can get a whole-body workout with the added convenience of time efficiency. Try these 4 steps in planning your circuit training workouts, and discover the advantages for yourself!
We hope the information in our piece – How to Get Started with Home-Based Circuit Training can help you with an informed decision on your workout regimens. If you want to continue further reading on home-based exercises that promote low impact lifestyles, check out our blogs on resistance band training and other cardio exercises.
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When she’s not seeing clients, she’s a freelance writer for health & wellness websites and brands. You can see more of her work at https://santoshasisters.com/ and her portfolio at https://eugenie.contently.com/.