TOTAL CIRCUIT 001

So here we go with our first 'Total Circuit'. Total Circuits are the name I am giving to my full body workouts and I will try to keep things fresh with a different one of these each week or so.

The Total Circuits are full body strength conditioning ciruits that almost exclusively use body weight only exercises, minimal equipment (for this one you need a ball like a fit ball or something similar, I use a beach ball here, and a theraband style elastic, that's all). They are aimed at getting all of your big muscle groups working and working on whole body strength at the same time as raising your heart rate and burning calories.

I use a free aplication on my IPod touch called 'Interval Trainer' to plan out thr timings of my sessions. You can use something similar or a purpose bought interval training stopwatch. Or just watch a clock, it's up to you, although an interval timer with an alarm sound is easier to work with of course. Also my times are not set in stone, you can lengthen or shorten them if you like of course.

The main aim of these circuits is to try to do all the exercises smoothly, consistently and with good form for the alloted time. Practice doing each exercises shown in the video first before doing the actual circuit so you can ensure you are doing them with good form. Try to push yourself to do as many reps as possible in the time for each exercise. the more reps you fit in the harder you're working. Push yourself hard, sweat it out, make yourself work for it. Most of the exercises are back to back with no rest so just keep on moving to the next, no quiting!

So here you go, the exercises and the interval times for each...




Total Circuit 001 - 20 minutes total time


60 seconds Starjump
45 seconds Push Up to Side Plank
45 seconds Leg Raise Ball Pass
45 seconds Downward Dog Push Ups
45 seconds Twisting Leg Raise
60 seconds Sumo Squats with Side Leg Raises
45 seconds Side to Side Wide Push Ups
45 seconds Elbow Prop Scissors
45 seconds Shoulder Press and Raises
45 seconds Toe Touch to Plough
40 seconds Breakdance Push Ups
40 seconds Alternating Superman
40 seconds Rest


Then run through this one more time replacing the final rest at the end with Starjumps again to finish for a total of 20 minutes.

Athlete By Choice - Total Circuit 001 from Duncan Brown on Vimeo.

So all of the exercises are fairly self explanatory and in the video I go through each of the exercises so you can see how to do them all easily. The only ones to pay careful attention to are the Downward Dog Push ups in which you go into the donward dog yoga position and push up from there so as it is using your deltoid muscles and your upper pectorals similar to doing an incline bench press.

The other tricky one is the Breakdance push up which I learned from bodyrock.tv (check them out). It is hard to explain in words so just watch the video and you'll see what it is.


So at the moment I am doing at least one of my Total Circuits every day that I train, so about 5 or 6 days a week, and sometimes doing two of them. Try this one out for a while and I will be back with my next Total Circuit for you soon!


Happy training!!!

Duncan