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Originally Posted by cellar Circuit training seems different then what I've seen before where you work out one or two body areas per day, and doing that every other day alternating body regions. With circuit training your doing a little of everything every day? Or do you need to rest a day between macroworkouts? Whats the benefit of using a circuit training schedual over the one muscle group a day everyother day? I'm sure the answers are right in front of me, but then again I'm being as careful as possible.
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Focusing on one or two muscle groups per day is more along the lines of what bodybuilders do as they are trying to focus exlusively on each muscle.I think this method is good for developing size, but for general fitness and conditioning, you basically want to work the body as one unit, meaning you work most if not all muscle groups in a single session.
When you do full-body routines, most people will benefit from alternating a training day with a rest day (meaning no exercise) or a recovery day (meaning light exercise like a low-intensity session on a cardio machine or a 1-2 mile walk).As an example, you can do full-body circuits on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, take Tuesday and Saturday off and do recovery work on Thursday and Sunday.
You can and should incorporate plenty of variety in your circuits.Don't do the same thing every time.Vary the exercises, exercise order, sets, reps, weight, rest intervals, speed of execution, etc.The amount of variety is an individual thing and something you will just have to experiment with but there are tons of options.You want to work hard and challenge your body but at the same time you want to keep things interesting, which is where variety comes in.
Re the under-developed muscles, you can include a few sets to address this problem after your circuits or add a few reps during your circuits for your weak sides.For example, say you are doing 10 reps of single-leg squats in your circuit.After you complete 10 reps for each leg, go to your weak side and squeeze out a few more.You can do the same thing with bench presses and one-arm rows; do a few more reps on your weak side than your strong side.For the abs, twisting crunches and side planks may be an option.
I had the same problem when I worked landscape construction.My left trap and right lat muscles became overdeveloped from all the shovelling I was doing.Single-arm dumbell shrugs and rows helped to compensate for the overdevelopment, but it took a long time to do.That is why, with manual labor type jobs, it is best to alternate back and forth between sides, especially when lifting or shovelling to not only stop overdevelopment of one side of your body but also to protect against injuries.When one side of your body becomes too strong, your weaker side has trouble keeping up and this muscle/strength imbalance can cause some serious trouble in the future.Just something to keep in mind.
