One Workout, Two Fitness Goals: Circuit Training

Exercise is supposed to help us in achieving a fitness level to keep our bodies functioning properly for a longer period of time. However, the question is, “What’s the best way for doing that?” In today’s busy lifestyle, people are looking for a quick and effective workout system.

Circuit Training 101

Circuit training combines aerobics with strength training and provides you with a workout for your entire body in almost half the time compared to either type of conventional workouts. It doesn’t work harder but smarter.

Many people seem to feel skeptical when they hear something saying that it can take less time to do that what you’re habituated to doing. At some point of time, the professionals used to say that longer workout sessions could increase the fitness level. In case you haven’t attained a particular time limit, then it’s waste of time for you.

But according to fitness experts, this is not always the sole truth. It is possible to spend even less time working out, and still you can attain similar level of or sometimes even more effectiveness. This is what circuit training basically does.

You can think of it this way: suppose you have to run from the backdoor to the front door; it can be done quickly, right? Now suppose you have to run from the backdoor through the front door out across the field; then obviously to attain pace, you will have to slow down a bit. The main reason behind longer exercising is to bring the heart rate up and as per your age you keep it in the 70–80 percentile range while working out in the fat-burning zone.

Circuit training helps you work out fast within each interval. All throughout the program, the heart rate is maintained at an optimum level. If you are exercising for 30 minutes, then for the entire 30 minutes your body is in the target zone. If you are doing aerobics alone, out of the entire workout for 30 minutes, you might achieve that only for 15 minutes.

Circuit training facilitates to switch between strength training and cardio exercise. During the phase of strength training, you can repeat certain steps and comfortably time yourself. During aerobics, you can time yourself for one minute. When you become stronger, the aerobic phase may be lengthened.

With this exercising method, you can shift between different exercises without any rest. The strength training exercises rest the heart and the cardiac exercises rest your muscles. Within 20–30 minutes you can obtain a refreshing workout for your entire body.

In case you have scarcity of time, which is the case for most of us, you can concentrate on the upper part of the body one day with circuit training and the lower part on the following day. The only thing you should be careful about is to avoid weight-training on the same part of the body continuously for 2 days. It takes time for the muscle tissue to rebuild and repair for reaching its optimum health and thereby avoiding injury.

Combining weights with aerobics, circuit training provides a great way to attain a better and healthy body within a short time. It’s definitely a great workout scheme for busy people like you which not only suits your lifestyle but keeps you fit as well.

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DVD Exercise Program – A Great Way to Exercise At Home

Now you can use your TV for fitness purposes. Instead of choosing the unhealthy "couch potato" routine, you can insert instructional DVD workout programs and exercise along. If you use a DVD exercise program, working out doesn’t have to be boring and tedious.

There are a wide variety of exercise tapes, video CDs, and DVDs on the market today. Each exercise program offers something unique and "breakthrough" discovery in the field of fitness. Majority of DVD programs either come with their own set of equipment, or suggest some form of gear and gadget to use. Here are some options to initiate your home exercise routine using instructional videos:

1. Tae Bo – Billy Blanks, the creator of Taebo, is an expert kick boxer and world champion. He has created workout programs that involve both boxing and tae kwon do. The instructional videos aim to help people achieve certain levels of fitness, while learning basic martial arts moves at the same time. The Tae Bo workout routines are upbeat and pumps up energy. If you make a mistake, all you have to do is rewind the video and do the move again until you master it.

2. Beach body – A few years back, Beach body created an exercise series designed for those who want to lose weight and to build well-toned muscles. The Turbo Jam, also from Beach body, takes the kickboxing lessons even further and teaches you a comprehensive fitness program. Other DVDs that you should check out are P90X, Chalean Extreme, and Slim in 6.

3. Yoga – this is a form of stretching and meditation routine that has possibly originated in ancient times. Yoga workouts possess healing powers and rest the mind from stress. It is also a good way to enhance a person’s discipline, patience, and tranquility.

4. Weight bearing workouts – You might be familiar with the FIRM. I’m not referring to that movie by Tom Cruise. The FIRM is a weight bearing workout program that integrates body-building workouts with cardiovascular exercises. This allows the body to burn double amount of calories and fats. Moreover, the program guarantees that you’ll start seeing positive results after a minimum of ten workouts.

5. Walking workouts – Some people cannot withstand the impact of aerobic exercise on their knees. A good option for those people is Leslie Sansone’s walking workout program. With her exercise routine you can walk an equivalent of 1 to 3 miles in a workout sequence of jogging in place, kicks, and aerobic strokes. A meter at the lower part of your screen let’s you know the distance equivalent of your exercise in the form of miles.

6. Dancing – Dancers stay fit and healthy because they love what they do. It is not new to us that dancing workouts add strength to leg muscles, give agility to the body, and stretches the bones well. Different dance genres such as Latin and hip-hop are not difficult if you enjoy doing them. Just insert a dance workout DVD into your disk cartridge and get ready for some sweat and groove.

Do you want to work out but your schedule doesn’t allow you to? Then begin collecting DVD exercise programs and reap the long term results of high level fitness.

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