The Perfect Circuit

After spending a great deal of energy over the last few years writing courses and programmes for various providers, a lot of good things have come out of this work, one being how to shape the perfect circuit.

If you're not familiar with circuit relative to exercise then it is simply a cluster of exercises put together to be done with short rest periods in between. This style of exercise is typical to classes and a great way to get an effective work out in a shorter space of time.

Having spent 6 years in the forces before my time in the fitness industry, I've got a great deal of exeperience of different approaches when it comes to circuits, some good and some pants. Particularly whilst developing our Primal Pattern course, we developed a simple structure for all body movements. This was intended to organise patterns that were low, moderate and high impact to help coaches clearly understand the complexity of movement upon the body. The fantastic and coincidental crossover that arose from this was that our categorisation translates to energy demands on the body for the movements making it and excellent matrix to base circuits from as you can keep a flow in the circuit whilst alternating between low and high demand exercises.



Bodyweight movement

So, how can you use this? I would start by ignoring the columns and just using the rows. Plan 3-4 circuits, each one with one exercise based upon a movement from each row (advanced being high demand, basic being low demand). Perform 3-4 cycles of each circuit before moving on to the next. 15 seconds between exercises and 60 seconds between circuits. Try the following times depending on your ability (30 seconds - beginner / 45 seconds - intermediate / 60 seconds - advanced)

For example:

• Circuit 1
• Exercise 1 - Press Ups
• Exercise 2 - Alternate lunges
• Exercise 3 - Tuck Jumps
• Circuit 2
• Exercise 1 - Pull Ups
• Exercise 2 - Farmers Walk
• Exercise 3 - 30 metre sprints
• Circuit 3
• Exercise 1 - Squats
• Exercise 2 - Woodchops
• Exercise 3 - Burpees

That is simply it! It's a simple system to keep your circuits effective, avoid pattern overload which can lead to pain, chronic pain and injury.

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Let me know how you get on with the exercises and fire any questions straight back