Hey everyone,

I just had a question regarding circuit training. We're required at my college to take a semester of PE and the one that sounded like it would be most beneficial to me is circuit training. However, I learned yesterday that since the class is so huge, there's only probably going to be enough time to do one set on each weight machine (upper and lower body machines, 18 in all). If I only do one set, should I go for higher reps with a lower weight, or should I lift heavy since it's my only set? I might have time to go after school to my gym to continue my workout, but that's not a definite. I'm aiming for a pretty good balance between building strength and endurance, but I don't know if it's possible to get really any benefits in both areas with this current setup.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

One set per exercise sounds pretty useless as far as lifting. I'd be tempted to approach the instructor, to ask about the possibility of splitting the class up into teams and rotating them each class on the machines: this group of students does these 6 machines, 2nd group does these 6, etc. That way everybody could do more than one set per machine, and you could fill in with bodyweight exercises that match what you're working that day, like air squats, push-ups, crunches, etc. If they have any free weights or kettlebells or other equipment, you'd have even more choices for keeping the workout going while waiting for a turn on the next machine. Maybe the instructor just hasn't thought of that option, and would be open to it?

I'm not really sure about the instructor to begin with. She said that this class was more aimed at muscular endurance and so she was suggesting very high numbers of reps... she said if you can't do 10 of something that you should lower the weight and to aim for 15 or so. I'm sort of worried about interrupting the status quo, since she kept saying "Yeah, and if you're a big guy who's a body builder, just do higher weights for that set and you'll max out and be done."....??? I'm just not sure about this lady, but hey, it was either this, swimming or walk/run (out in the freezing temps!) so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and deal with it. The only equipment in the room are the cardio machines and then the 18 weight machines and everyday we have to keep an exercise log (and it's numbered 1-18 for the machines), so deviating from the plan might screw up her grading system. *sigh*

Gosh, Lindsey, you're doing great with your weight loss.

I think I'd have opted for the swimming, but hey, that's me. As for the circuit training, wow, that's a weird setup. But, I'd go for higher weight rather than higher reps. Plus, of course, your class will likely get smaller as the semester goes on, eh? You may be able to do more than one circuit, at least on some machines.

I think this would make much more sense. Why would anyone want to do 18 machines, one time, in the same day? Seems sorta...I don't know...weird. But I guess you can't control the class. If you've got to do what she wants I would just lift a heavier weight. I would be bored otherwise.

18 machines does seem like a lot. Is each machine really working a different set of muscles? At my gym, there's a lot of duplication between the machines. For example, there are three chest fly machines, two pull down machines, three leg extensions, two hamstring curls, etc. etc. Each machine is slightly different--they don't have any exact duplicates, but many are working same the muscle groups. So even though you are only doing each machine once, maybe you'll end up working the same muscle groups multiple times.