Training Tips by Pat our Kinesiologist

New year, new me. 2020 is here and most people have a different resolution

for this new year. Perhaps one of the most popular ones every year is to

exercise more, to be more active. It is a good resolution, but can be hard to

achieve. Some lose motivation, some didn't get the expected results, etc. I'm

not saying I have a 100% working method of making it easier for you to stay

active this year, but I have some alternative methods to exercise in the gym

that might help you stay motivated.

Some people believe going to the gym involves doing some cardio,

stretching, strengthening exercises, endurance exercises, and they are not

wrong. The way in which these exercises are done might change from one

person to the other and I'm not only talking about the order or the weights

used. The "standard" way of doing a program is usually to do X amount of

repetitions (reps) for X amount of sets and to take X amount of seconds (or

minutes) between sets. Ex: Biceps curl, 10 lbs dumbbells, 12 reps, 1 min of

break between sets for 3 sets. Once your are done, you put your weights

back where you took them and move on to the next exercise. It is a good

method of training, most people get some good results when they train that

way, but there is some people out there who get bored after doing the same

program, with the same amounts of sets/reps/rest periods. That's when you

can change the way you train, with the circuit or supersets method.

Circuit is the first variation. Circuits are all about having a good time/exercise

ratio. There is different types of circuits. The most common are group

exercise classes, or boot camp, but it can also be done alone. A circuit is

doing 1 set (or X amount of time) for each exercise before taking a break.

Usually, the program has some different exercise that target different

muscle. This is done to ensure that you don't train your biceps for 4-5

exercise in a row without pause for example. Group training classes use this

type of training by setting up a number of stations that is equal or lower to

the amount of participants. Everyone pick a station and do the exercise from

that station. After a set amount of time, everyone jump to the next station till

you've done all stations. Then everyone take a break at the same time and

you start the second set, etc. Please note this is one example of a circuit

training, it is not the only method of doing it. But how can I do this alone if

it's usually done in a group? You can do this the same way as the previous

method, but with no one else and instead of time, you can use reps as your

queue to change station. As you guessed, the different variations are

limitless. Circuit training is a good way of training and being efficient, but it is

a bad idea to do it in a public gym at this time of the year. Why you may ask?

Well, January is the busiest time of the year for most gym and to do a circuit