Simply put, a circuit allows coaches to get a lot of work down in an efficient manner to increase work capacity, but what real adaptations are we getting? While we all know nobody is going to be worried to get tested right after a trip through German Volume Training, what are the physiological responses? Not to oversimplify, most want to organize training, use time efficiently, and help address bo
Circuit Maximus: Current Debates with the use of Circuit Training
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Participant -
Participant
You raise an interesting question about what adaptations are taking place. Some report significant strength gains. Generally speaking, or training age aside, strength gains are attained by performing 6 reps or less. Do we have to re-think the approach from the last several decades? Do we have to re-write the textbooks? Perhaps the gains from circuits point to some program design issues?
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Participant
In reference to the ‘Wild West’ appearance of some circuit training, this may be more a case of sport specific endurance training. MMA athletes doing rope drills, tire flips etc. are actually performing exercises more specific to their sport. Circuit training can be great for increased work capacity and overall fitness, but IMHO traditional circuit training I commonly see performed and written about fails miserably in terms of building strength and power.
A compromise might be for coaches with time considerations to form a few (or several) more traditional ‘complexes”. For example an athlete can do a set of squats followed by a set of cleans followed by a set of jumps, then a short or long rest depending on the focus (strength, strength endurance, power). In this way, mini-circuits are grouped in a manner such that, with well controlled loads and rep schemes, the exercises work toward synergist and compatible goals such as strength and power, unlike ‘traditional’ circuits where myriad exercises are performed usually without thought of how inappropriate rep schemes attempt to accomplish conflicting goals such as max strength and endurance.
As such, I believe the key to successful circuit training is first to define the goals for the workout, and pay close attention to the exercise groupings, intensity, rep schemes including lifting tempo, density, and rest intervals.
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Participant
Mixed circuits are fine, but too often it’s a bunch of stuff done back to back with a severe decay in technique (tire flips with massive lumbar flexion) and without any benchmarks.
No matter what the modality, a metric or goal change in abilities is vital or we get stuck in anything goes mode. Measuring some change is necessary.
CV
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Participant
I agree, but omitting modalities that will obivously be beneficial because appropriate benchmarks don’t exist, or even if measuring progress is difficult, isn’t necessarily a good response. MMA fighters need strength and explosive power from a variety of positions, including those with massive lumbar flexion, so whatever works. You might say that such exercises pose a danger to the athlete, but its all relative to the demands of the sport, and I don’t think very much in the way of exercises are more likely to promote injury when compared to knees in the head, fists in the face, and kicks to the liver.
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Participant
Then what works best? That is hard to say but when people are not able to fight because of training injury or even struggle to sustain excellence because they got hurt training doesn’t cut it. Clearly you are not in favor of “MMA is violent, do whatever you want and hope things work out.”
So long as the coach obeys your suggested methodology I don’t see a need to be hold ing a watch and HR monitor to see if people are getting better.
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Participant
You raise an interesting question about what adaptations are taking place. Some report significant strength gains. Generally speaking, or training age aside, strength gains are attained by performing 6 reps or less. Do we have to re-think the approach from the last several decades? Do we have to re-write the textbooks? Perhaps the gains from circuits point to some program design issues?
Star brings up a good point….what is a circuit in terms of structure? Is a quad set a circuit if you repeat it? If circuits are your max strength then you have a problem. Again the effort to get “stuff” done in a short period of time usually creates design issues. Circuits have guidelines that should be followed because decades of experimentation usually leads to some sort of agreement of what is good and what doesn’t look right.
Mixed circuits for combat sports is great but it doesn’t give an excuse to have sloppy technique to the point of being silly. Some standards should remain.
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