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Order of exercises in a circuit (Read 10524 times)

Krank

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Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 09:08:53 am
Morning all,

after a lay off i am back in training mode and i am doing a circuit of exercises after i have bouldered, the circuit is several exercises such as pull ups, dips, press ups ect.
on tuesday i was wondering about the best order in which to do these exercises, I am wondering if it is better to do my 3 sets of pull ups, followed by 3xdips, followed by 3xpress ups and so on untill the circuit is complete, or, if it would be better to do 1 set of each exercise untill all exercises are completed and then do the 2nd set of each followed by a 3rd.

does anyone have any knowledge on the effectiveness of doing all 3 sets together as opposed to splitting the sets? Together seems to stress the body more but less reps are possible compared to splitting the exercises into single sets and getting a bit of recovery between sets.

cheers

groovedog

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#1 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 09:39:25 am
I would do dips first, pull ups, press ups.

Dips I feel are the hardest to do, so if they are fatigued from the other two exercises you may struggle to control the movement and do enough to make it worth while. Pull ups next and then press ups as these are easy to do if your cooked.

I think generally people to sets of the same exercise then change, I guess this way your fatiguing that muscle group. I guess it depends on reps per set and rest time? Maybe someone will be along to advise better.

Krank

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#2 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 09:56:41 am
hi groovedog,

it wasnt so much the order of the specific exercises i wondered about, it was the merit of doing 3 sets back to back as opposed to splitting them up. My gut feeling is that its better to group them together but thats not based on anything solid.

Nibile

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#3 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 09:59:52 am
I would do the excercises in order of difficulty, starting from the hardest one, because you want to be fresher.
Completing an excercise before going on to the next is the classic. You have to choose weight, sets and reps accordingly.
If you do a set of each, you can either work as in a circuit, in which you pause between excercises only the time needed to set up (and in this case you can do some sort of HIIT - this is what I do at home also to try and burn some fat) or you can simply take normal rests between different excercises, in doing so you keep training but there are long rests between same excercises and in this case I'd for max power, big weights and few reps (otherwise why pause for long?).
HTH.

galpinos

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#4 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:11:36 am
Krank, what are you trying to get out of these exercises?

At the moment, I’ve just started back and am doing pull-ups, press-ups then bicep curls back to back, then resting for 3 mins, then repeat. My thinking is I’m just trying to beast myself and increase the amount of “work” my body can do (I guess it might be called raising base fitness or something like that) before I start to train “properly”, i.e. start a strength phase or whatever.

I am a punter though so take the above with a pinch of salt…..

Krank

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#5 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:17:58 am
Hi galpinos,

im in the same boat as you, my main aim is to just abuse myself as ive been a lazy boy. Its just a bit of general conditioning, ive always been a bit weak in the body so just increasing my base level of fitness really.

Nibs, cheers for the reply

Nibile

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#6 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:22:36 am
my main aim is to just abuse myself as ive been a lazy boy.
In this case I'd leave the HIIT circuit thing for later.

Krank

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#7 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:26:39 am
thats what im starting to think, I think I will just continue the general abuse, which means it doesnt really matter what regime i follow as long as im a mess at the end, and when the winter comes then concentrate on some pure strength work.

cheers
« Last Edit: June 19, 2014, 10:34:15 am by Krank »

Muenchener

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#8 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:41:45 am
Depends what you're trying to achieve. My basic understanding is that circuit style with little or no rest in between exercises would be better for general conditioning / work capacity / self mortification, whereas doing all sets of each exercises, with decent rest in between, would be better for actually getting better at the exercises.

a dense loner

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#9 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 11:20:47 am
For general stuff I'd do pull ups push ups and dips, in that order. Groove dog must have a freaky body if he thinks dips are the hardest  ;) they are hard but they're good to do at the end, when you know it'll be mostly on triceps. Do that everyday or every other day for 4 wks and see where you're up to. If possible do them at different times of the day as well, most people have no idea how much this affects you

Paul B

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#10 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 12:08:26 pm
Regardless of any training benefit, perceived or otherwise, I think Super-setting exercises feels awesome.  :strongbench:

Stubbs

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#11 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 12:12:07 pm
Dense, I can do 20 odd pull ups, 30 odd press ups and about 3 dips. Will getting better at dips improve my climbing, or just make my arms look better when I'm drinking coffee?

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#12 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 12:23:58 pm
Great to hear your back on it Krank.

I do a superset / HIIT workout at home one night a week for general conditioning.
It consists of 30 push ups then straight into 10 pull ups then straight to a chair for 10 bicep curls R/H then 10 No. L/H with 15kg. Rest for 3mins then repeat... for 3 total sets.

It takes me 20 mins and keeps my heart rate high throughout and delivers a serious pump on the last set.
I upped this to two w/outs a week between climbing last summer and become nicely ripped!!

Eddies

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#13 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 01:10:16 pm
... So my understanding is if you want to gain strength then concentrate on slow steady exercises targeting a specific muscle group one at a time with plenty of rest between sets (All 3 sets of one exercise before moving on to the next).
If you want to condition and or loose weight or you have limited time and want to pack as much as poss into your workout then do supersets.

Nibile

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#14 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 01:21:08 pm
... So my understanding is if you want to gain strength then concentrate on slow steady exercises
Hmmm... Speed is an essential component of power. You always want to move the weight as fast as you can, regardless of how fastly it will move.
It's the nervous recruitment that has to be fast. Then, a very heavy weight will move a bit slowly but this doesn't matter.

Nibile

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#15 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 01:30:44 pm
The slow movement (or fast positive phase followed by a slow negative phase), I thinks, is an old school way to gain muscle mass by prolonging the TUT (time under tension) of the muscle.
Look at every strength/power discipline and watch if the pattern is slow or fast.

a dense loner

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#16 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:07:45 pm
Stubbs you can do about 3 dips since you probably try to do them never. I knew some fool would compare them with simple numbers. Pull and push ups are compound exercises so you should be doing a lot more, dips aren't as complex. For me they're all about the triceps, esp when the surrounding muscles are fatigued. My reply had nothing to do with climbing, it was a simple answer to a simple question, not the only answer before some other genius chirps in.
As an aside I can probably do about 30 dips, these won't get me up a problem at almscliff which I've been working twice a wk for two yrs. A sweeping generalisation but you understand

Stubbs

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#17 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:24:18 pm
Dense put your handbag down, put your toys back in the pram and put your dummy back in your mouth. My question was genuine as I've haven't done them as you rightly point out and was wondering whether it was worth starting.   You intimated that you found dips easier than pull ups, and I could only assume that you meant in terms of numbers, hence estimating what I could do.

Sloper

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#18 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:37:50 pm
I'd recommend doing some very light weights i.e. 2.5 kg with 20 reps for the major protagonists and antagonists as a warm up before doing body weight exercises.

I would also focus on movement within the exercise, when I was doing these at the gym (yes boys and girls my training has in the past extended beyond booze, food and cigars) I would pull up to elbows at 90o then raise my legs to 90o up to the beam, back to 90o and lower the legs then repeat with one leg and then the other.

The same with dips but when your arms are locked out.

Remember climbing is about movement and this will help your core strength as well.

a dense loner

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#19 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:39:18 pm
Pull ups are the hardest non fancy no bullshit exercises out there. The caveat in the case of climbers being that we spend all our time using the back muscles to the detriment of all the others so most other things feel harder. My toys are firmly in my pram. Whenever any kind of ex question is asked you immediately compare it to what it can do for climbing. Let's just say all these exercises will let you climb for years longer before your body packs in

galpinos

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#20 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:53:38 pm
Dense, do you not find dips work the top of your pecs near your shoulder or do I just have the lamest pecs in the world?

Stubbs

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#21 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 02:54:27 pm
Dense, I'm firmly in the conditioning to help protect my body camp. Since going to see Coach Dave have spent a significant amount of time post climbing sessions looking ridiculous at the back of the wall doing various exercises.  I am genuinely interested in the reasons people are doing exercises, if they are doing them to get bigger muscles to look good in a t shirt, great; if they are doing them to make their body more resilient to injury in the long term, great; if they are doing them to improve their climbing, great.  I can't know this without asking.

I appreciate the advice of older gentleman such as yourself who's bodies are already over the hill.

tomtom

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#22 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 03:08:52 pm
What exercises should I do to make my arms look cool when I'm drinking coffee?
(or is a beard more important?)

;)

a dense loner

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#23 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 03:09:26 pm
Galpinos yes they do. It wasn't as simple as me saying dips aren't compound ex's, they are but not to the extent of the others. Shoulders come into play as well. However I think dips are mainly triceps. Most climbers are very very weak in this area compared to biceps, which is self evident since you can get a lot of undercuts in climbing to strengthen and show off the bar muscle, there's not that much for the tricep to do, certainly not over it's full range of motion.
Unfortunately working away a lot leaves me in a room on my own and after the 4th time it bleeds so I get reduced to doing other strange exercises. So I really rate any kind of preventative/t-shirt type stuff, and anybody with the boredom threshold to do anything other than drink and snort shit

a dense loner

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#24 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 03:11:47 pm
Maybe beard, but what about drinking coffee with massive arms AND a beard? Yeh that's right. Maybe some kind of lumberjack shirt? Still can't believe I threw my two  :(

Muenchener

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#25 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 04:41:26 pm
Let's just say all these exercises will let you climb for years longer before your body packs in

 :agree:

When I used to do lots of pull-ups (a long time ago) I had constantly sore shoulders.

I few years ago I got some rings and started doing roughly equal quantities of pull-ups and dips, and my shoulders were absolutely fine.

Nibile

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#26 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 05:13:25 pm
What's wrong with beards?

tomtom

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#27 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 05:19:14 pm

What's wrong with beards?

Nothing. Though it's more feasible for me to develop Popeye arms than a beard :) well a decent looking beard rather than a patchy grey/blond chin mess.

Moo

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#28 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 05:28:26 pm
I think that beards are reaching the tipping point of becoming uncool though. This as good for me as I can't grow a proper one.

Jaspersharpe

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#29 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 06:58:21 pm
What's wrong with beards?

Hipster beards are currently taking over England.
I think that beards are reaching the tipping point of becoming uncool though. This as good for me as I can't grow a proper one.
Yes, I think that point has already tipped.

a dense loner

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#30 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 07:28:10 pm
I'm on about proper beards you could hide a badger in, not these fly by night £400,000 a wk beards

Stubbs

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#31 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 08:33:56 pm
 Yeah beards are so over, the cool look for this summer is the bottle brush moustache, as popularised by some guy in the '40's.

Krank

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#32 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 10:08:45 pm
This has taken a good turn, i like a beard, i once grew a badger hiding beard, it was beautiful, an old man once came up to me in the pub and stroked it while telling me how impressive it was for my age. It was odd, beards do have a downside it seems.

tomtom

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#33 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 11:31:28 pm
Sounds like you'd pulled. Some might consider that a beard upside :)

Jaspersharpe

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#34 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 19, 2014, 11:54:45 pm
When I went to watch Huddersfield Town v Brighton and saw this I realised the shark had been jumped...


slackline

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#35 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 20, 2014, 12:30:12 am
I think that beards are reaching the tipping point of becoming uncool though. This as good for me as I can't grow a proper one.

negative frequency dependency

Stubbs

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#36 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 20, 2014, 08:05:52 am
Think you'd look great with a beard Jasper, like a blond version of that Eurovision lady!

Boredboy

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#37 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 20, 2014, 08:09:59 am
Yeah beards are so over, the cool look for this summer is the bottle brush moustache, as popularised by some guy in the '40's.

Haha, I always thought facial hair in general was popular with evil dictators, just full beards are more associated with the left leaning ones. I saw a few 'Castro-esque' beards at the wall a couple of months ago.

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#38 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 20, 2014, 05:51:08 pm
I know I'm off topic now as I'm not talking about beards, BUT.......

im in the same boat as you, my main aim is to just abuse myself as ive been a lazy boy. Its just a bit of general conditioning, ive always been a bit weak in the body so just increasing my base level of fitness really.

This is silly.  If you 're going to put in the effort, make it directed.  It takes a little more planning, but no more overall effort so why "just abuse yourself".  Decide on an aim, then figure out the best method to get there. 

If you're UK based, then the fall is pretty prime season, so I'd assume you're in more of a build mode, so doing work capacity would be good for a few weeks.  I like doing a circuit of changing exercises for work capacity, with relatively high overall reps.  Always do a warmup set, then max it out, make it hurt, but get in a ton of volume.  I like pyramids for these type of bodyweight exercises, 1,2,...10,11,10....2,1 reps.  It totals out to a ton of work, but you build up into it well. I generally look to do two sets, the first - Pull-ups, Dips, Box Jumps, the second - Bench, Shoulder press, Rows.


tomtom

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#39 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 20, 2014, 05:52:57 pm

Think you'd look great with a beard Jasper, like a blond version of that Eurovision lady!

:D

I'd look like sideshow bob with a patchy grey beard. Ie a tramp.

SA Chris

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#40 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 23, 2014, 12:22:11 pm
What's wrong with beards?

Hipster beards are currently taking over England.
I think that beards are reaching the tipping point of becoming uncool though. This as good for me as I can't grow a proper one.
Yes, I think that point has already tipped.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/men-seeking-plausible-beard-exit-strategy-2014041685787

Nibile

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#41 Re: Order of exercises in a circuit
June 23, 2014, 12:26:49 pm
Shame on them.

 

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