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How circuit training boosts your muscle power?

During the past few years, endurance athletes in a number of sports have added resistance exercises to their training programs to boost their muscle power.

Scientific studies have linked resistance training with a reduced rate of injury in athletes. It fortifies leg muscles and strengthens 'weak links' in athletes' bodies, including the often-injured hamstrings and shin muscles, as well as abdominal and low-back muscles.

Resistance work also improves tendon and ligament strength and increases bone density, which decreases the risk of injury. In addition, resistance workouts:

* Heighten body awareness

* Upgrade coordination

* Reduce body-fat levels

* Improve self esteem

All of these contribute to improved performance during competition.

For athletes, the general preparation period before the beginning of actual competitions is an ideal time to initiate a resistance training program. A four to eight-week period of sound resistance training helps to develop a nice foundation of suppleness (mobility), strength, and stamina (endurance), to which athletes can add speed and racing skill just before the competitive season begins.

Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously build strength and stamina.

The total number of circuits performed during your training session will vary from two to six depending on your training level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced), your period of training (preparation or competition), and your primary training objective (You may be developing total work capacity, boosting your power, or engaging in 'active rest,' for example.)

The eight exercises in your circuit

Here is the sequential format provided in this training plan for each circuit, with an analysis of how it helps the athlete:

* Total-body exercise: Four-count squat thrusts

* Upper-body exercise: Push-ups

* Lower-body exercise: Scissor step-ups

* Core/trunk exercise: Abdominal sit-backs

* Total-body exercise: Squats to presses

* Upper-body exercise: Body-weight rows

* Lower-body exercise: One-leg squats

* Core/trunk exercise: Low Back Stabilisers

1. Develops strength and mobility in your knee and hip joints – important for high-speed movement. Develops stability and strength in the upper trunk, abdominal, and pelvic regions, strength that is necessary to control torso movements during the running stride or when you strike a ball. Greatly increases your cardiac demand, hikes the power of your leg muscles, and increases the impact forces (upon landing) as well, fortifying the bones in your legs and feet.

2. Increases upper-body strength, developing abdominal and hip-flexor stability . Improves stability, helps to control hip, trunk, and shoulder movements as you move quickly. Also promotes balance between the upper and lower body.

3. Develops leg strength, power, and dynamic-balance control (coordination) - without which you can't move quickly, whether it's from one end of the football pitch to the other, from the baseline to the net on a tennis court, or from the start to the finish of a 10k race. Cardiovascular benefits of this exercise can be increased by speeding up your stepping cadence or by increasing the height of the step.Enhances leg-muscle power and improves mobility of the hip and knee joints.

4. Increases abdominal stability, which carries over to improved posture and better core stability as you run. A strong pelvic girdle and trunk provide the anchor point for a strong pair of legs, allowing you to use your legs in a maximally powerful manner during quick sprints – or during sustained, vigorous running.

5. Increases strength and power in your legs, hips, low back, abdominals, shoulders, and arms. Note that the whole-body involvement of this exercise increases your cardiorespiratory requirements, compared to the more commonly used, isolated pressing exercises such as bench and shoulder presses.

6. Improves pulling strength of the upper-back, shoulder, and arm muscles , and does for the back side of the body what the push-up does for the front side. Also serves to increase stabilizing strength in the low back, gluteals, and hamstrings, all of which are critically important for quick movement whenever you participate in your sport. You'll achieve a balance between lower and upper body strength by performing this exercise.

7. Develops muscle strength in the quads, hamstrings, and gluteals, the muscles which provide much of your power while running. By strengthening your hip and knee joints in a coordinated and integrated fashion, your leg strength and running power should improve tremendously. It can also help you improve your vertical jumping ability.

8. Heightens low-back strength providing for proper posture while running and also provides excellent 'motion control' of the torso and hips throughout the running stride. As a result, you'll move more quickly – whether it's to return a serve on the tennis court or to reach the football in time to score a goal.

Remember that improvements in how your body functions can occur whenever you overload your body's systems. The full circuit program is described in the report. It provides an overload of your cardiorespiratory system (especially the hard circuits), taxes your muscular system by forcing it to work against increased resistance, and forces the key joints involved in moving your body to go through a wider range of motion than they commonly encounter.