Summary: Lifting weights to lose weight is either done through circuit training or the traditional approach of building as much muscle mass as possible. Circuit weight lifting will give you the most cardio effect and you will burn more calories during your workout.
Circuit training is not the same as cardio training, but as far as weight lifting is concerned it is the closest you can get to a cardio workout. I am not saying circuit training should replace cardio because it should not. Circuit training does not come without its disadvantages. Circuit training is not always the easiest or most convenient way of training.
The main goal with circuit training is to move from one exercise to another without rest. If you are at the gym this could create challenges because someone could be using the machine you need to use. Once you leave your machine and the other one is free someone else may have jumped on the one you were using. A good circuit training workout session will involve several exercises in rapid-fire fashion.
Circuit training will get your heart rate up a lot faster than normal weight training. You may or may not be able to lift as heavy weights as you would with normal weight lifting. What I mean with normal weight lifting is doing one exercise with reps of 6 to 8 and three sets of each exercise and resting approximately 30 seconds to one minute in between sets. The longer you rest the heavier weights you will be able to lift, but the less cardio effect you will have.
Another advantage with circuit training is you finish your weight lifting workout much faster. You don't have to stay at the gym as long. You can do a modified circuit workout if hogging up several machines is not possible.
Many people break up their weight training sessions into body parts. If you are a beginner you may want to consider doing a full body workout all in one session.
One option of breaking up your body parts is the following but there are several combinations that could work. The overall rule is whatever body part you combine, exercise the larger muscle group first.
1. Back and chest
2. Arms: Bicep and tricep
3. Shoulders
4. Legs
5. Arms and shoulders
6. Back and tricep
7. Back and bicep
8. Chest and tricep
9. Chest and bicep
10. Chest and shoulders
I personally like to do opposite muscle groups i.e. bicep and tricep or back and chest if I am doing supersets.
If you do a tricep workout before your chest you will not get much of a chest workout because you triceps were already exhausted.
If you are going to do a circuit training for your chest start out with flat bench press which targets your middle chest and is the largest muscle group. Flat bench will indirectly target the other chest areas. Then immediately do incline bench press for your upper chest of one set of 8 reps then immediately move to decline bench press for your lower chest of one set and 8 reps. Do this superset three times. If you want to incorporate an arm workout do a bicep or tricep exercise after this chest superset.
Some other ideas to incorporate circuit training is do an upper body exercise then a lower body exercise. If you are at the gym and are afraid of losing your machine grab some dumbbells and have it next to your squat machine. Do a squat set then do a bicep curl set.
Some suggest if you decide to rest a muscle group in between sets, grab a jump rope and jump hard core for a couple of minutes.
To get your heart rate up the fastest with jump roping try the following routines but obviously not at the same time;
1. Jump side to side.
2. Jump forward and backward.
3. Jump lifting your knees high in the air.
4. Jump running in place with lifting your knees high in the air.
5. Jump with one leg forward and one leg back and switch off with each jump, in a cross-country skier approach.
You will get a decent jump-roping workout with the standard jumping up and down with a slight knee bent but you will need to increase your workout time. The nice thing about jump-roping is not a long workout. Most recommend jump-roping between 10 to 20 minutes with breaks. Most can't jump rope 20 minutes straight. Jumping is also a great way to build bone mass.
Circuit training is also a good way to break free of a weight-training plateau. Change is the main way to push through a plateau.
Conclusion: Lifting weights to lose weight depends if you want a cardio effect or the traditional weight lifting method. Circuit weight lifting increases your heart rate and the traditional weight lifting not nearly as much. To lose weight without circuit training requires you put on a lot of muscle mass.
Author Resource:-
Bret Bradshaw owns a business providing virtual celebrity personal training for all the major workout programs. You can learn more at Fit-In-Exercise.com.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.massagebyben.com/articles/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites 