Circuit training, Yay or Nay?

[ironwolf]

I've always thought there is a difference between a conditioning circuit and "circuit training".

 

[Badger67]

I like them, i notice a difference in my performance when i'm not doing them (part of why bjj training limits my capacity to an extent that i'd rather not train bjj at all almost, i swear this sport is built for pussies).
But i find many don't know how to program them properly from muscle groups or complexity perspective. Trying to get my coach to shy away from the box jumps has been a daunting task (hasn't happened). He gets pissed when i look at him and do my own thing.
I have my gf doing some to help her, but our workouts look entirely different. They also don't involve highly complex things, or fatigue the posterior chain (i see so many people injured from this).

I'm glad my classes in Kin/Physio/AT have never been too outdated. If you add squatting on a ball in your program and hand it in to the prof, they deduct marks for this and other outdated irrelevant flim flam tomfoolery. My nutrition profs however.....

 

[LatFlare]

Nay.....more like gay....

My thoughts exactly

 

[Uchi Mata]

If you know what specific quality you want to train, and can structure a circuit so that you can actually target that quality well, then a circuit could be useful, although not necessarily more so than other training means. If you're just doing a circuit or complex, or whatever, because it's hard, but it's not really training some specific quality, then there's more effective uses of your time.

It's funny how S&C even for specific activities like MMA always seems to start with 'what am I going to do' rather than 'what attributes do I want to improve'. I've found circuits useful for improving muscular endurance while also acting as a potent weight loss tool when getting ready for BJJ tournaments, but my circuits contained a lot of sport specific movements alongside repetitive body weight exercises so it was pretty tailored to what I was after. The question shouldn't be 'do I need to do circuits', it should be 'what am I trying to improve'. Maybe circuits are a good answer, but they're not optimal for strength and they're not optimal for aerobic endurance, so if you're after either of those primarily I'd look elsewhere.

 

[BOWHUNTER]

I used to do it for boxing. It's will get your anerobic system up to par.

google sequential fatigue challenge.... then try it and report your findings.

 

[Muskie]

I've done circuit training in the past and this week before Muay Thai class we did an 8 station circuit and today I did some other fitness class which wasn't a circuit but was similar as we switched exercises every so many minutes or seconds, the Muay Thai trainer had a big clock and we did 50 seconds at every station, the original circuit was conditioning but later we did bags and pads for time etc.

 

[BOWHUNTER]

http://rosstraining.com/blog/sequential-fatigue-challenge/

do this