When you want to lose fat and maintain your muscle mass, then a Circuit Training Workout is just the thing you need. This differs from your basic weight lifting workout because you do not train one body part at a time to get maximum muscle growth. Instead, you work out the upper and lower body with compound movements to gain a metabolic effect (EPOC). This metabolic effect will have you burning a lot of calories, mostly coming from stored fat.

And since it only takes 20 to 30 minutes to complete, you will not lose any of your muscle tissue in the process. Long hours of cardiovascular exercise has been known to tear down muscles for energy. Which is horrible for long term fat loss because you will lose your muscle mass.

So, if you don’t want to spend long hours doing slow pace cardiovascular exercise which has been proven to be ineffective in long term fat loss and building muscle mass, then the circuit training workout is something you should try.

Here is a sample of a circuit training workout that is time based and should be done in three sets.

Upper Body / Pushing Movement

You will start this circuit training workout with a pushing movement. This will involve the use of your upper body. You will alternate from upper body to lower body to generate more of a total body metabolic effect.

You can either do push ups or bench press using dumbbells or a barbell. Each exercise will take 30 seconds to complete so make sure you pick a weight that you can do for 30 seconds without stopping.

If you choose to perform push ups and you find it is hard to do the full 30 seconds, simply drop down to your knees and continue with knee push ups.

Rest
After performing the first exercise for 30 seconds, you will rest for 30 seconds and then perform the following exercise.

Lower Body / Squat

Now we will perform a lower body movement. By alternating between lower body and upper body, you will engage more muscle fibers for this circuit training workout and thus burn more calories.

For this exercise, beginners should start out with a basic body weight squat. For intermediates, try a weighted squat with either a barbell or two dumbbells. And, for the more advanced group, execute a dumbbell squat and press.

The squat and press is just like a squat except at the top of your squat movement you add a shoulder press. This will help activate more muscle fibers to ensure maximum fat loss. Any movement you choose should last for a total of 30 seconds.

Rest
After performing the second exercise for 30 seconds, you will rest for 30 seconds and then perform the next exercise below.

Upper Body / Pulling Movement

There are a lot of different exercises you can do for the pulling movement in your circuit training workout. Here are a few that you can choose from…

• Pull ups
• Chin ups
• One arm rows
• Barbell rows
• Pull downs

Perform any one of these exercises for a total of 30 seconds. If you can not do chin ups or pull ups for 30 seconds, choose a weighted exercise like the barbell rows or pulley pull downs so that you can control the weight you use to complete the duration of this exercise.

Rest
After performing the third exercise for 30 seconds, you will rest for 30 seconds and then perform the last exercise in this circuit.

Lower Body / Lunge

There are a few different lunge exercises you can do for this last exercise. Here is a list to choose from…

• Forward body weight lunge
• Reverse body weight lunge
• Stationary body weight lunge
• Alternating jumping body weight lunge
• Forward weighted lunge (dumbbell or barbell)
• Reverse weighted lunge (dumbbell or barbell)
• Stationary weighted lunge (dumbbell or barbell)
• Forward lunge and press (dumbbell or barbell)
• Reverse lunge and press (dumbbell or barbell)
• Stationary lunge and press Dumbbell or barbell)

For beginners, go with any of the body weight exercises. For intermediates, I recommend any of the weighted lunges. And for the advanced, the lunge and presses will work great.

The lunge and press is just like the squat and press, except you are performing a lunge instead of a squat. Pick one of these lunges and perform it for a total of 30 seconds.

Rest
After performing the final exercise for 30 seconds, you are now done with the first set. Rest between 30 seconds to a minute and repeat this circuit training workout two more times for a total of three sets.

There are four different ways you can make this circuit training workout more challenging…

1. Increase the weights
2. Increase the exercise time
3. Increase the sets
4. Decrease the rest time

As you progress, your strength and energy levels will increase. By manipulating any of the above mentioned aspects, you will make your circuit training workout that much harder to complete.

Henry Chervenka