Circuit Training

Plans to enrol in a muay thai class was shelved. Instead, I have been put on rigorous circuit trainings since the beginning of this week and trust me ... it is truly demanding and challenging. Such trainings involved almost every major muscle group of your body - from sprints to weights to seemingly mindless games ... and it is non-stop, rapidly repeated (and I really mean rapid) over a few cycles. But at the end of the day, when you are finally sipping that glass of water and catching your breathe, you will realise that the pain is somehow ... pleasurable :)

Taken (with modifications) from wikipedia:
"Circuit training is a type of interval training in which strength exercises are combined with endurance/aerobic exercises, combining the benefits of both a cardiovascular and strength training workout. 'Circuit' means a group of activities and refers to a number of selected 'stations' positioned around the facility that are to be visited in rapid succession. It refers to a number of carefully selected exercises arranged consecutively. In the original format, 9 to 12 stations comprised the circuit. This number may vary according to the design of the circuit. Each participant moves from one station to the next with little (15 to 30 seconds) or no rest, performing a 15 to 45-seconds workout of 8 to 20 repetitions at each station (using a resistance of about 40% to 60% of one-repetition maximum (1RM). By adding a 30-seconds to 3-minutes (or longer) aerobics station (normally treadmill for me) done at a very high speed between each station, referred to as aerobic circuit training, the method attempts to improve cardiorespiratory and muscle endurance as well.

The range of stations includes those comprising resistance equipment (e.g. hydraulic equipment or free weights), as well as allocated spaces to do squat thrusts, pushups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, and other exercises. Each person should complete the activity in one station before they proceed to the next station. They then continue the circuit until they have passed through all stations (normally by 3 cycles), or until a certain time requirement has been met.

The program may be performed with exercise machines, hydraulic equipment, hand-held weights, elastic resistance, calisthenics or any combination. Themed circuits are possible, for example with boxing exercises (boxercise)."

So come on ... get up and sweat it out :)