Total Body Workout Routines and Circuit Training

Total Body Strength Workout Routines and Best Home Workout Routines, Exercise Routines

Total body workout routines using circuit training hit all your problem parts.

The most effective total body workout routines are known as circuit training: performing a rapid sequence of varied exercises with little or no rest between sets. Home workout routines that race you through a series of exercises targeting different areas of the body are effective routines for weight loss, building lean muscle, and improving fitness. Weight loss routines must work the whole body, because it is impossible to work areas in isolation and expect the fat to only roll off that area. Circuit training hits it all in one workout.

Total body workout routines using circuits have been rigorously tested with a variety of subjects. National Institutes of Health published a study of strength workout routines for stroke patients that showed circuit training to be more effective than standard physical therapy, creating greater improvements. If a total body workout routine works for someone with limited motion, it'll work for you. The total body workout routine of circuit training has the advantage of improving cardio while strengthening muscle and best of all, staving off boredom. A home workout routine that is constantly changing, with short durations of exercises and a variety of challenges, is more stimulating and easier to stay excited about.

Total body workout routines built around circuit training focus on the major muscle areas of the body—legs, abdominals, chest and back, shoulders and arms—either in one circuit for each muscle, or as a circuit that hits all the muscles in one workout. A strength workout routine does't necessarily need to incorporate aerobic stations, because the strain of the exercises is also an effective cardio workout. Ideally your circuit exercise routine will have 9 to 12 stations that alternate the muscle groups you're working. (University of New Mexico) Home workout routines don't have to have a lot of fancy machines, but a few dumbbells or resistance bands, like those that come with some Beachbody™ workout DVDs, really add muscle and definition.

Creating total body workout routines usually starts with a desire to drop that gut. Circuit training as a weight loss routine is an ideal way to drop pant sizes because you have to work the whole body to lose weight. Exercise routines that attempt to work a muscle in isolation may make the muscle stronger, but it won't strip the fat away in just that one spot because targeted fat loss isn't possible. The body drops the fat as it pleases and where it pleases so you have to get rid of it all. But your total body workout routine still depends on strengthening your core through variations on the crunch and leg lift. Weight training routines need to strengthen the stabilizing muscles of the lower back in unison with the abdominals.