Is Circuit Training Better for Cardiovascular Fitness and Fat Burning?

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN

 

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So now you have a better understanding that you don't necessarily need to be spending hours doing slow, boring cardio. In most cases, you can get just as good a response using properly designed circuit workout routines with full body exercises that target all the muscles in your body.

 

Circuit Training, EPOC, and Fat Burning

Because higher intensity circuit training creates a greater cardiovascular load, it also has a very pronounced effect on your EPOC. EPOC is your "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" and is your body's way of recuperating the oxygen that wasn't available during the workout.

In other words, EPOC is a measure of your body's post-exercise recovery. The greater the EPOC, the more oxygen your body is consuming to recover after a workout. Also, the greater the EPOC, the longer your body will be burning calories after a workout. I like to refer to this as "passive caloric expenditure" since in many cases this recovery process (which results in burned calories) can last for several hours, depending on the intensity of the workout.

The more intense the workout, the greater the EPOC, and the more calories you burn after your workout is complete. The majority of these calories are also fat calories since your body turns to fat burning (for fuel) as it restores the glycogen (stored carbohydrates) that was used during your workout.

Pretty cool!

But it gets even better. We now know that you can get the same (and even greater) fat burning benefits from a circuit training workout that you can from a cardio workout of the same intensity and duration!

A study out of the British Journal of Sports Medicine compared the effects of circuit training and treadmill exercise performed at the same intensity (ie. matched rates of oxygen consumption) and exercise duration on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption ( EPOC).

Eight, untrained females performed two exercise sessions approximately 28 days apart. Circuit training consisted of three sets of eight common resistance exercises (leg press, knee extension, knee flexion, biceps curl, triceps extension, and bench press, back extensions).

Analysis of EPOC data revealed that circuit training resulted in a significantly higher oxygen uptake during the first 30 minutes of recovery. Furthermore, heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, and caloric expenditure were all significantly greater in the circuit training workout. The researchers concluded that when exercise VO2 (intensity) and exercise duration are matched, circuit training is associated with a greater metabolic disturbance and energy cost during the early phases of EPOC compared to treadmill exercise!

Now I bet your head is really spinning!

Try this circuit training workout....

 

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