Strength and Conditioning
Could Circuit Training make a come back?

Category: Sports Performance | Specialism: Strength and Conditioning

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This information is useful for all most intermittent type field sports as an improvement in sprint agility and anaerobic endurance could prove useful.

Circuit training has been around for a while and used to be popular in schools, the Armed Forces and sports clubs. Recently, this has not been the case for various reasons, one of them being a perceived lack of specificity. It is also due to the fact that certain fitness qualifications or accreditations focus on barbell platform lifts, and so the people who pass those courses tend to do those type of exercises with other people.

However, as part of the Long Term Athlete Development Process whereby generalisation of motor skills is essential before specialisation, and as an easy to use, cheap, and very varied exercise mode, circuit training should be considered with the right populations at the right time.

A recent study from Turkey (http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2009/09000/Effect_of_Circuit_Training_on_the_Sprint_Agility.25.aspx)
showed an improvement in sprint agility and anaerobic endurance following a circuit training protocol of 3 days a week for 10 weeks. The subjects were healthy PE students, average age 24, so may not have been that fit to start with.

This information is useful for all most intermittent type field sports as an improvement in sprint agility and anaerobic endurance could prove useful.

A good book to read that shows how circuit training fits into the overall training plan is John Jesse's "Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia ".

Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com

Tags: long term athlete development, research, strength and conditioning

Posted Thu Nov 5 2009 7:14 PM in

by JRMarshall | Permalink | Comments(1) Share this article:

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I think one of the issues at play is that trends tend to form at the elite end of sport. Those of us below the elite, such as myself as a masters swimmer, will look at what they do and think "I'll try that". So, making the reference back to your post - and specificity. Specificity is great for the elite. They train regularly and frequently, so can focus on one thing at a time, with a high level of quality. The majority of competitive sports people, however, do not train with the frequency or regularity to allow this. Masters swimmers that I know are a good example. They will train 3, 4 maybe 5 times a week at the higher end (in the pool that is - though a few do more). They will, as a result, have gaps in their conditioning. I've found that working on more general fitness on land (in the gym or jogging) allows me to be more focused in my limited pool time. In my view, there's barely a masters swimmer that wouldn't benefit from circuit training for precisely this reason - both sprint agility and anaerobic endurance being at a premium for this group...

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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com