The Best Strength Training Equipment For Home Use

Break Through Your Fat Loss Plateau With Circuit Training

Weight loss or fat loss, which is it?

Imagine two people standing before you. Each of them is roughly the same height and weight, but one is out of shape and flabby and the other is physically fit and toned. Which one needs to "lose weight"? Technically, neither. To more accurate assess this, we need to know how much of their weight is fat vs. lean muscle? Obviously the goal is to lose the fat. Fat has mass and mass has weight. When fat is lost, weight is lost and people inaccurately measure their progress by jumping on a scale. The scale doesn't take into consideration body composition.

What's a weight loss plateau?

You'll know when you've reached a "weight loss plateau" when you jump on the scale and no longer see the number going down, but you still have flab. If you were to track your weight loss on graph paper, you'd see a mild, steady dip in your weight. After a few weeks you may notice that the line on the graph no longer goes down the paper, but rather moves horizontally in a straight line - a flat line, just like the top of a plateau.

What is circuit training?

Circuit training combines intervals of cardio-pumping aerobic exercise in between resistance exercises. It's an extremely effective way to rev up your fat burning engine. Circuit training is also one of the fastest ways to workout. Rather than working longer to burn more calories, you'll be working stronger. Let me explain that. As your muscles adjust to the level of resistance, you'll find it easier to perform the exercise. To compensate you could do more reps, but you'd be needlessly extending your workout time. A better way to do it would be to increase the level of resistance.

Get Bodylastics Resistance Tubes Here

Aerobic exercise - Jumping jacks can be performed at a moderate to fast pace. Stepping in place can be performed by alternately bending the knees and raising the feet off the floor a few inches. To intensify the workout, raise the knees higher and at a faster pace as if you were running in place. To bump it up a little higher, jump rope. If you don't have a rope, jump from side to side or back to front with feet together.

Resistance exercise - Resistance exercise is working your muscles against a resistant force such as weights or elastic bands/tubing. This type of exercise challenges the muscles to contract while lifting, pulling or pushing, thereby making muscles stronger, leaner, and more toned. Resistance exercise is highly adjustable to any fitness level. Remember I said to work stronger, not longer? Add more weight by using heavier dumbbells or thicker resistance bands.

Why will circuit training boost fat loss?

In a resting state like sleeping (for eight hours), fat cells burn two calories per one pound of fat while muscles cells burn 6 calories per pound of muscle. The less fat and more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn. Circuit training can help you achieve both in a very short period of time. You can get a full body workout in only 10-12 minutes. Do that 2-3 times a week and you'll become a fat burning machine. A wonderful side effect of resistance exercise is that the muscles continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate for up to 48 hours after a workout.

Allow the body to rest

After a good resistance workout, allow the muscles to heal several days. Strenuous resistance slightly injures muscle tissue by creating microscopic tears. When the tissue heals, it strengthens the muscles. You can workout every day if you like, just not the same muscle groups. Alternate the workouts by doing arms and shoulders one day, the back the next, then abs, legs, and so on.

A sample circuit workout for resistance bands

Before and after performing a circuit, spend about five minutes with a gradual warm up and cool down. This would be mild cardio to get the blood circulating, not stretching. It can be treadmill walking, exercise bike, jumping jacks or even walking in place.

30 seconds of cardio is performed between each exercise. Each exercise is 15 reps.

Legs: Squats

Back: Bent over arm row

Legs: Lunge

Arms: Standing arm triceps extension

Arms: Standing biceps curl

Shoulder: Standing lateral raise

Chest: Resisted pushup

Back: Laying back extension

Abs: Crunch

That's one complete circuit. Now rest for about five minutes then do it again if you can. If you can't, then build up to it. Don't over-exert. When the reps become too easy to perform, instead of doing more reps, increase the resistance level by stepping up the tension with the next set of bands or combination of bands.

Buying Guide

Circuit Training DVD - Get Bodylastics resistance tubes and the circuit training DVD you see in the video above. Bodylastics resistance tubes allow you to work stronger, not longer. As your muscles adapt and exercises become easy, increase the resistance by combining different tubes rather than working out longer.