Does anyone else do a circuit?

[Love 2 Lift]

Gentlemen,

I was just curious as to know if anyone else on this forum does a circuit when you lift on your lift days. For those of you who don't know what a circuit is; it's when you do all muscle groups in one day, 2-3 x's a week. I, personally, do a circuit 3 x's a week--Mon, Wed, and Fri I do 2 exercises each for chest, back, bi's, tri's, lats and traps. And in those 2 exercises, 3 sets of 10 for each. Has anyone else tried this as opposed to working say chest like once or twice a week and doing like 6 or 7 different exercises? I've been doing this all of my life and have never lifted any other way. I'm currently taking CEX and N-large2 protein. I have no soreness on Wed from my circuit on Mon. I feel like if I only worked my chest once or twice a week, it wouldn't be enough. Though, would my muscles grow bigger if I did??? Oh, bye the way. Tues and Thurs's I do legs and cardio. My off days are Sat and Sun. Help me, PLEASE!!!

[snakemw]

the problem with a circuit is to me it doesnt seem like you are giving your muscles enough time recover. you grow out of the gym not in it. i dont feel like i haved really exhauted my muscles unless i do at least 10-15 sets for bigger muscles and 8-12 for smaller, but this is just me. if the circuit deal works for you dont change it. if for some reason you decide to give mine or wed or anybody else who lifts similiar to us a chance let me know which way works better. i would like to know the results. i think you would be surprised if you do give it a chance.

[Love 2 Lift]

snake, when you're talking like 12-15 sets...do you mean 12-15 sets of different exercises or the same? Also, how many reps are you doing in these 12-15 exercises?

[snakemw]

here is a sample chest workout:

flat bench 4 sets
incline 3 sets
decline 3 sets
pec-deck 3 sets
or flyes

if i use barbell i normally do 8-12 reps, and if i do dumbbell i normally do 10-12 sometimes more if i can. hope this helps.

[Love 2 Lift]

Sure does, thanks Snake. I'll let you know how everything pans out.

[snakemw]

good luck man, and keep us posted. just remember how ever you decide to lift, go heavy and go hard and try to keep your workouts under or around an hour.

[Hawker]

I tried doing every muslce group once a week. But it felt like that I was losing most of my pump by waiting a week in between workouts. Lately I've gone back to doing the circut 3x/week and I am getting much better gains. But that's just me.

[ghostwheel]

Quit circuit training a long time ago for a split routine. Much better to bomb one or two bodyparts in one day than to try to do everything. I found I could really ramp up the intensity of the workouts and get out of the gym before my cortisol levels spiked and actually get my muscles to grow on a split routine. I was always getting tired and not able to finish every exersise on a circuit due to exhaustion on on complete circuit.

For maintenence I guess it is oK , or even for cardio, but if you want to grow you need a split routine so you can focus your Maximum energy on each body part.

:)

[Love 2 Lift]

OK well, I think I'm going to give the circuit a rest. But I need your all's help. I need for you to tell me what you think of my my soon-to-be workout routine. Instead of doing a circuit mon, wed and fri where I've been doing 6 sets for each muscle group 3 days a week; what I want to do now is do a split-- work bi's and tri's and forearms on mon and thurs doing like 12 sets each day for each group and on tues and fri's do chest, back and lats also doing 12 sets each day. On wednesday, I would do cardio and legs. But I have 2 important questions that I really need help with: 1.) is there too long of a wait/recovery time from thurs to monday for my arms and forearms and from friday to tues for my back and chest from the previous weeks exercise? 2.) Is doing legs and cardio 1 day a week enough? Will I still see development in my legs and calfs (sp?)? I'm basically just trying to bulk up a little bit. I wanna do cardio just to stay healthy. What do you all think? All comments are appreciated. Let me know. Thanks fellas.

By the way--I'm taking CEX right now. I'm gonna change my workout routine when I start stacking NOZ supercharged and AE2. Good idea?

[funnylittlman]

Circuit Training is good for an overall workout.

It really depends on what you want.. and from the sounds of it you want to get more mass. That, as snake has alluded to, requires taxing 1 or 2 body parts a workout.

Here's an example of a workout that I do:

Monday:

Chest and Triceps

Sets Reps Excercise
4 8-10 Bench / Hammer Strength (205 - 225 or more in weight)
3 8-10 Incline / Hammer Strength (same)
3 8-10 Flys (I.E.Cable,Dumbell, or Pec Deck)
3 10-12 Cable Pull Downs (1 arm)
3 10-12 Cable w/ Rope
3 10 or more Superset Dips w/ Pushups (10 of both)

Do all of this with the body for life rule of a 30 second rest peroid between sets only, and you're pretty dang done.

Vary your workout, don't do the same circuit every time you go into the gym b/c your body will adapt after awhile. You already stated that you are not sore after Monday's circuit.

[snakemw]

i change my workout every so often, but the majority of the time i do
mon- back
tues- chest
wed-off
thurs- arms
fri - shoulders, legs


i do enough sets with each bodypart except arms to stay in the gym around an hour. for arms i try to stay in for around 45 min. if you want to do arms twice a week this is another routine that i do sometimes.
mon -arms
tues- back
wed- legs
thrus- arms
fri- chest, shoulders

the only thing i dont like about this routine is sometimes my tris are so tired i cant go real heavy on shoulders.

the main thing is find out what works for you and keep it.