Program Confusion

I am currently doing a circuit training workout with 30 seconds of rest between each exercise. I currently can only make it through one circuit though I know I should be doing at least two. Is it more important to maintain the low rest periods, and keep the weight up and eventually progress to two circuits? Or should i decrease the weight?

I can do everything with good form and I am hitting my reps but cardiovascularly I am restrained from another circuit. I think I am going to just keep at it, not be a pussy, and eventually get there but I just wanted to check.

I really only have fat burning goals at the moment while retaining if not growing muscle, and I do HIIT on my two off days and i do the circuit MWF. Also my lifts are getting easier though I don’t know if I should bump up the weight or wait until after I can do two full circuits. Any suggestions?

Struggle through it and do some more cardio on the side. Also be sure to be drinking a lot of water during circuit training. It really makes it easier but also make sure to have a nice bigass post workout M-E-A-L after.

[quote]T-man21 wrote:
I am currently doing a circuit training workout with 30 seconds of rest between each exercise. I currently can only make it through one circuit though I know I should be doing at least two. Is it more important to maintain the low rest periods, and keep the weight up and eventually progress to two circuits? Or should i decrease the weight?

I can do everything with good form and I am hitting my reps but cardiovascularly I am restrained from another circuit. I think I am going to just keep at it, not be a pussy, and eventually get there but I just wanted to check.

I really only have fat burning goals at the moment while retaining if not growing muscle, and I do HIIT on my two off days and i do the circuit MWF. Also my lifts are getting easier though I don’t know if I should bump up the weight or wait until after I can do two full circuits. Any suggestions?[/quote]

Why are you doing CT again? If you already are doing HIIT, then why not just get high-quality loading with garden-variety weight training?

What routine are you doing?

Okay now today I almost puked…that actually has been going on the whole time I have been trying to do this (puking that is). This workout came from the ABS Diet book and goes as such…after a brief cardio warmup I do an abs circuit hitting 4 parts of my abs and then lower back and then I stretch and warmup with light weights.

Then I begin. I start with 10-12 squats, 10 bench presses, 10 pulldowns, 10 military press, 10 upright row, 10-12 triceps pressdowns, 10-12 leg ext.,10 biceps curls, and then 10-12 leg curls. I have 30 seconds of rest between each and I am supposed to repeat the circuit twice to start and then 3 times after two weeks. But I just cannot last after the 1st one.

I tried today and I couldn’t for fear of puking mid set, and I am not a pussy at all but I just can’t figure it out. I just came off of Chad Waterburys Total Body Training and I was okay.

I think that its just the 30 sec rest periods with the higher reps. I think I have to elongate my rest or god forbid, reduce my weight…I generally drink alot of water before but I will try to up it during. I mean it is a solid workout right?

[quote]T-man21 wrote:
Okay now today I almost puked…that actually has been going on the whole time I have been trying to do this (puking that is). This workout came from the ABS Diet book and goes as such…after a brief cardio warmup I do an abs circuit hitting 4 parts of my abs and then lower back and then I stretch and warmup with light weights.

Then I begin. I start with 10-12 squats, 10 bench presses, 10 pulldowns, 10 military press, 10 upright row, 10-12 triceps pressdowns, 10-12 leg ext.,10 biceps curls, and then 10-12 leg curls. I have 30 seconds of rest between each and I am supposed to repeat the circuit twice to start and then 3 times after two weeks. But I just cannot last after the 1st one.

I tried today and I couldn’t for fear of puking mid set, and I am not a pussy at all but I just can’t figure it out. I just came off of Chad Waterburys Total Body Training and I was okay.

I think that its just the 30 sec rest periods with the higher reps. I think I have to elongate my rest or god forbid, reduce my weight…I generally drink alot of water before but I will try to up it during. I mean it is a solid workout right?[/quote]

It depends on what your goals are. Your exercise selection isnt great IMO. If someone were to make good progress on a program of this nature, they would be the type of person that would do well on any program.

Looking at what you are doing, I would say you are mainly going to accomplish increasing your lactate tolerance. However, if that were your goal you could incorporate more compound movements.

The other poster was right, you would be better off doing a garden variety strength program and resting than spinning your wheels with this one.

I am assuming your goals are to increase muscle mass and strength.

Check this out:

Day1- Squat
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Pronated Inverted Row

Day2- Squat
Bench Press
Power Clean

Day3- Squat
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Supinated Pullup

repeat… For the Squat, Bench Press, and overhead Press do not fatigue yourself with the warmup sets. Do sets of no more than 5 reps for the warmup sets. Work your way up to 3 challenging 6 rep sets.

For the deadlift work your way up to a challenging 6, 6, and 6 rep set but start out lighter making your last set the most difficult by far.

Do 4 sets of 5 for the power clean and do 3 sets of as many reps as you can get for the inverted row and pullup.

This is a program you can progress on.

That makes a lot of sense and I intend to use this tomorrow, a few questions though. What should my rest periods be? and also how long between exercises? Finally, in regards to warm ups, you said not to fatigue myself, but you still want me to do them right?

I am thinking resting maybe 60 seconds between sets, and as fast as I can set up the next exercise?