Circuit training is excellent because it offers a quick and convenient way to get your workout in.
Rather than doing exercises one after the other, you can bang them out in a back-to-back fashion, push yourself much harder, and finish the same amount of work in half the time, or even less.
What’s more, you don’t need access to a fully-stocked gym to have an effective workout. On that same note, we’ve put together this guide. In it, you’ll learn how to perform circuit workouts with resistance bands.
Pick The Correct Bands For Your Fitness Level
Because there are numerous kinds of resistance bands, you should pick yours carefully. For the most part, bands, especially resistance bands with handles, come in various tension levels.
It’s best to start with a band that offers smaller amounts of tension (say, 19 to 26 pounds) and see how it feels. The band of your choosing should allow you to perform exercises through their full range of motion.
Do Exercises In The Right Order
For an effective circuit, you need to be mindful of your exercise order, not just the overall selection. You should avoid doing more than one exercise for a given muscle group before giving it time to recover.
For example, if the first exercise in the circuit is a chest exercise (for example, banded chest fly), then the second exercise should be for another muscle group. That way, you’ll give your chest muscles time to recover so that they can perform more productive work in a couple of minutes.
So, for example:
Banded chest fly (chest) -> Pull-ups (back and biceps) -> Bodyweight squats (legs) -> Plank (core) -> Push-ups (chest)
As you can see, these exercises are arranged to give each muscle time to recover before training them again.
Bet On The Proven Exercises
When it comes to circuits, there are more than enough gimmicks and ‘fancy’ exercises. Ignore all of them.
The truth is, what you need are the proven basics - your push-ups, pull-up, squats, and such.
Below, we’ll share what an effective circuit workout with bands looks like.
Do Exercises In Pairs
If you’re more on the beginner side and don’t have the endurance to perform more than five exercises back-to-back, you can do them in pairs (supersets).
For example, you can pair agonist-antagonist muscles: biceps-triceps, chest-back, quadriceps-hamstrings, abs-low back, and such.
Here’s an example:
- Push-ups (chest) -> 2. Pull-ups (back) -> Rest 1 min
- Overhead band tricep extensions (tricep) -> 2. Banded bicep curls (bicep) -> Rest 1 min
- Bodyweight squats (quads) -> 2. Lying banded hamstring curl (hamstrings) -> Rest 1 min
A Circuit Workout With Resistance Bands
Here is how a circuit workout would look like. Not all of the exercises require bands, but it’s good to have one long resistance band, one resistance band with handles, and a resistance band door anchor.
Perform each exercise for 30 seconds and rest for about 10 seconds between exercises.
Banded chest flyes -> Crunches -> Banded front squats -> Banded bicep curls -> Chair step-ups -> Overhead band tricep extension -> Plank -> High Knees -> Resistance band overhead press -> Resistance band back rows