circuit-training vs. sequential

[palmcron]

Hi,

I was wondering, what the advantages and disadvantages are of doing exercises in a circuit-training like fashion.

So for example, doing Dips, Pullups and Handstand-Pushups, is it better to do:

5 Dips, 5 Pullups, 5 HSPU and this three times, or 3x5 dips, then 3x5 pullups, then 3x5 HSPU.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of one over the other?

palmcron.

[Neal Winkler]

The advantage is that you get more rest by alternating muscle groups. So, if you normally wait 3 minutes between sets, you will now have 6 minutes of rest for that muscle group if you alternate pullups and dips. You can even drop the rest periods down a little bit and finish your workout sooner.

If you are doing pullups, HSPU, and dips in one workout, I would alternate pullups and HSPU, and then alternate dips and core exercise.

[Joshua Naterman]

The disadvantage is that you will run out of energy faster. This can be mitigated to a pretty good extent by taking a few grams of sugar after every set once you bet 1/3 to 1/2 way through the workout. I have found, after extensive experimentation, that jelly belly style jellybeans, whether the name brand or store brand, are the best thing to use. two per set once you start using them is the way to go.

You may also notice that your aerobic conditioning becomes a limiting factor. The intensity you can maintain is going to be lower with circuit training than it will be with pure strength training, but if you're looking for some great conditioning then using circuit training program style for one workout a week will help a lot. You will gain strength slower, but you will still gain. You will also be tapping more heavily into glycogen stores, which means you'll need to eat more carbs after workouts. Keep that in mind!

[Neal Winkler]

I took his post to mean that he was going to use strength oriented rest periods, only using alternating sets instead of straight sets. In that case, you would not get tired or tap into glycogen. I think he was just using the term circuit training because he didn't have another word for what he wanted to do, not because he wanted to have his training be more endurance oriented.

But maybe I was the one that misunderstood.

[Joshua Naterman]

That's a really good point! If you're moving through a circuit using 3-5 reps with long-ish rests then you definitely won't be using as much glycogen. Without knowing the timing and set/rep structure you are using it is hard for us to give clear or relevant opinions

I think we covered the two basic possibilities though.

[palmcron]

Thank you for your answers!

I never put much thought into rest time. But I think trianglechoke7 is right

What I really had in mind when saying "circuit training" was 3-5 exercises, done 3-5 reps each; with rest between sets. Is there another name for this? (circuit training seems to refer to going to through all exercises without rest?)

The goal is mainly strength.

From what I've read here, straight sets seems to be more commonly used around here - or sometimes 2 exercises alternated with shorter rest as trianglechoke7 suggested. Why?

Does the overall longer rest, when doing more other exercise before doing the first again make the rest time for the worked muscles too long?

Slizzardman's comment on doing a circuit-training once a week sounds good - I might implement that (with a real circuit-training)

[Joshua Naterman]

Thank you for your answers!

From what I've read here, straight sets seems to be more commonly used around here - or sometimes 2 exercises alternated with shorter rest as trianglechoke7 suggested. Why?

Does the overall longer rest, when doing more other exercise before doing the first again make the rest time for the worked muscles too long?

Well, part of why we do straight sets is that it is good to focus on one thing at a time, but another part is that sometimes certain exercises can take away from your performance in others. For example, you wouldn't want to do your weighted pull ups(if you did them) after a set of yewkis. Many times the most important exercise for an athlete is the first one, so that he or she can put maximum effort into that to get the maximum benefit. Part of the advantage, from what I understand, to straight sets is that your nervous system gets "primed" for the hard work. Your body gets into the groove of the exercise and this allows you to perform it with maximum efficiency, leading to maximum effort and results.

What you are describing is more like a "rounds" approach. It's different from a super set since you are taking rests between exercises. Whether or not the rests are too long really depends on how many exercises you do before repeating an exercise and how long your rests are. If you have 1 minute rests and do 5 rounds of 1 set pull ups, 1 min rest, 1 set PPP, 1 min rest, 1 set front pull, 1 min rest, 1 set SLS, 1 min rest, and then repeat, you'll probably be ok. You have to figure on 20-30 seconds per set of exercise plus 4 total minutes of rest. That means, at the most, you'll have 6 minutes of rest between sets of the same exercise. That's not too bad and probably won't hurt your performance at all. If you start making "circuits" where you take 10 minutes to get back to the original exercise you just might start having problems with the nervous system not staying primed and the muscles starting to cool down, decreasing performance.

So it CAN be a good idea

I personally do push-up pairs. I do PPP and FL rows together, bench and front pulls/front lever pulls together, pull ups dips and inverted curls together. NLC/GHR and SLS together, etc. They only things I do straight sets with are bottom position squats and heavy deadlifts