Top 10 Circuit Training Exercises to try for a Perfect Body

Circuit training is a creative and complex type of training whose main purpose is to increase muscle strength, coordination, and flexibility. This type of training is perfect for all persons, regardless of their fitness level. Doing circuit training exercises can help you build the perfect body you’ve always wanted, and this article brings you 10 amazing exercises to treat.

Benefits of circuit training

Let’s be honest here, some types of training can be quite boring after some time. You get into a certain routine and even adding some variations to workouts doesn’t help. Circuit training is different; it gets the heart pumping and strengthens your muscles simultaneously.

A study from the Lipids in Health and Disease journal discovered that high-intensity circuit training was strongly associated with a reduction in fat mass, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL or bad cholesterol, and it increases levels of HDL or good cholesterol. Other studies also confirmed that circuit training improved different parameters in cardiovascular health in obese men. These parameters include systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. Basically, not only it can help you increase flexibility and muscle size, circuit training supports heart health too.

Circuit workouts are a combination of aerobic and strength training. A study from the American Physiological Society found that 12 weeks of aerobic training increased testosterone production in participants. Besides, strength training is linked to increased growth hormone and testosterone release regardless of age, research shows. Bearing in mind that most men use supplements to support testosterone levels which decline due to age and unhealthy lifestyle this type of training proves to be a useful way to overcome this issue. A combination of circuit training and top testosterone boosters could be the winning formula for increased muscle size, fat loss, and ripped body.

SEE: Simple Bodyweight Workout Plans You Can Do At Home

How to create a circuit workout

The easiest thing would be to consult a personal trainer who would create a customized circuit training plan based on your fitness level, goals, and other factors. However, you can create your very own workout by combining different exercises. Here’s how to build a perfect workout plan:

Select the time limit before creating your workout plan, it’s useful to determine how much time you have on your hand. Then, it gets easier to determine what exercises you can do within that timeframe

Start your workout plan by choosing some upper-body exercise
Pick a lower-body exercise
Choose a compound exercise or total-body movement
Sprint for 60 seconds
Rest for 60 seconds

Below, you can see examples of exercises you should be doing.

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1. Dumbbell bench press

This exercise belongs to the strength training group, and not only it can help you grow your muscles and strength, but it will also work great with testosterone boosters, which is important as most men use natural supplements to maximize their results. Dumbbell bench press is an upper body exercise that activates shoulders, chest, and triceps while improving muscular balance. Here are the instructions:

Lie on the back (on bench of course) and hold a pair of dumbbells directly above the breastbone with arms fully extended
Pull the shoulder blades together and point palms forward
Start slowly lowering both dumbbells to the sides of your chest
Pause
Return to the starting position

2. TRX crossing balance lunge

This is an excellent exercise to build a single-leg strength and core stability. As you can conclude based on its name, the exercise requires TRX Suspension Trainer meaning it’s ideal for gym setting. The instructions are below:

With one foot firmly on the floor, raise the opposing leg until the knee is parallel with the hip
Lower yourself down
Cross the knee of “non-working” leg behind the knee of the “working” leg
Extend hips forward while keeping the shin of “working” leg vertical to stand up

3. Plank

The plank is one of the easiest and the most effective exercises you can do. Just like Virectin review explain the product takes a multifaceted approach to increase testosterone and improve sexual health, plank also works in different ways to exhibit its effects. The exercise develops strength in the core, muscles that connect upper and lower body, and it targets shoulders, arms, and glutes. Although a static exercise, it can aid weight loss which is also essential for your testosterone levels. The process is:

Lie face down with fists clasped, elbows pushed into the sides by the ribs, and forearms on the ground, toes should be tucked under
Push yourself up so that your body is resting on forearms and feet only
The body should form a straight line
Squeeze the muscles in your bottom and thighs
Push heels together
Stay in that position for at least 20-30 seconds for start and then release

SEE: Try This 15 Min Workout Circuit To Burn More Fat And Transform Your Body

4. Barbell biceps curl

This exercise develops strength and size of biceps while improving grip strength. To do this exercise, you should:

Stand up straight with feet hip-width apart
Grab a barbell with an underhand grip and let it hang with your arms fully extended and palms facing forward
Start raising the barbell to the neck level
When you reach the peak lower the barbell into the starting position

5. Bodyweight split squat

Bodyweight split squat is lower body exercise which targets hamstrings, glutes, and quads. In order to perform this exercise, do the following:

Stand in front of the staircase, but face away from it
Place one leg on the second step
Squat down until the front leg is parallel to the ground
Drive back up explosively
Repeat the same process with the opposite leg

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6. Leg press

As you can conclude, leg press targets legs or the entire lower body area. To do this exercise you’ll have to use the machine in the gym, and then:

Adjust the seat of the machine so you can sit comfortably
Make sure your hips are beneath the knees while your knees should be in line with feet
After removing the safeties, start lowering the knees toward your chest until they are bent at 90-degree angle
Press back up

7. Bear crawl

Bear crawl is a fun exercise that targets multiple muscle groups including abs, core, lats, legs, and lower body. The instructions are:

Start crawling on the flower without allowing the knees to touch the ground
The points of contact with the ground should be palms of your hands and balls of the feet
Crawl forward and do 3 pushups
Crawl backward and do 3 pushups

8. Rope press-down

This exercise targets abs, biceps, forearms, shoulders, and triceps. Rope press-down builds strength and muscular endurance. To do this exercise, you should:

Face the adjustable cable machine
Grab the rope attachment from the high setting with a thumbs-up grip
Bring the elbows to your sides making sure that forearms are parallel to the ground
Extend the forearms straight down while twisting the rope inward
Pause and return to the starting position

9. Mountain climber

Mountain climber is a full-body exercise and fits perfectly into the circuit training routine. Here’s how to do it:

Get into a plank position with arms and legs extended
Pull the right knee to the chest
While the knee draws to the chest, pull your abs tighter
Quickly switch and pull the left knee in
Continue to switch knees

10. Jumping Lunges

When done correctly, jumping lunges target glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves, but they also engage core and hips. The process is easy:

Stand up straight with left foot in front of the right one
Get into a slight, but not full lunge
Engage your core, push off the bottom of both feet into a jump
Switch the position of your feet in midair
Land in basic lunge with the right leg in front

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Conclusion

Circuit training combines both aerobic and strength training in order to increase muscle size, strength, endurance, and benefit your health in many ways. This type of training is versatile and allows you to create your own workouts by pairing different exercises into a single routine.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846819/

http://www.the-aps.org/mm/hp/Audiences/Public-Press/2016/54.html

https://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/how-build-perfect-circuit-workout

Author Bio:

Will O’Conner

He has been a Health & Fitness Advisor for Consumer Health Digest. He loves to write about General Health & Fitness topics. Will also believes in providing knowledgeable information to readers and constantly motivates them to achieve their goals. He is also passionate about traveling, arts and discovers and writes for people. Connect through: Facebook, Twitter, & Google+.