I've always believed supersets are best, but strength coach

John Barban is now telling me I'm wrong!



John put together a program called, "6 Minute Circuits",

so I grilled him about the methods and why his way is

"supposedly" better than mine.

Like myself, John is a Certified Strength and Conditioning

Specialist, and a varsity strength and conditioning coach,

specializing in training female varsity athletes, and has his

masters in nutritional science and human physiology

from the University of Guelph.



CB: How does a 6-minute circuit compare to 30 minutes of
slow cardio? How can 6 minutes of exercise possibly be just
as good, or even better than traditional cardio workouts?



JB:

The 6-minute circuits workouts uses all the muscles of your

whole body, and they are at a high enough intensity to build some

lean muscle mass which stimulate your metabolism long term.

Slow cardio usually only engages your legs (like jogging, biking, efx

trainers etc.) and not enought to really build any muscle.

Our circuits work your back, chest, arms shoulders core as well as

your legs. You end up doing alot more work in the same amount

of time.



CB: Do you have an example of the exercises you would

use in a circuit?



JB:

Do the following exercises back to back to back no rest

between each:



Reverse Lunges 12 reps per leg

Incline Push up 12 reps

Squat and Press 12 reps

I'll use different exercises in each mini circuit to workout

all the muscles in the body in different ways.

Typical slow cardio can't get this many muscles working this hard.



Also the intensity is much higher with these workouts. You end up

burning more calories during the workout, and getting a longer

afterburn (the calories you burn once the exercise is over) Slow

cardio has much less of an afterburn effect.





CB: Why are people so hung up on doing a LOT of cardio for

fat loss?



JB:

I think they just get used to it, its easy and you don't have

to think about it, and they probably read the calorie counter

display once on a cardio machine and believe that they are

accurately showing them how many calories they are burning.

These machines have been shown to be off by as much as 20%

in some cases, so I wouldn't put too much stock in them.

Whole body high intensity circuit intervals don't have any sort
of calorie counter attached to them, so people may not be able
to visualize how many calories they are really burning with these
types of workouts, and I can assure you its more than any slow
cardio session of the same length.






CB: I totally agree, it's a lot harder to "think" your way

through a tough workout than to do mindless cardio.


JB:

Also, I think people may be afraid of high intesnity workouts if

they have never tried them.

They might think it's not for them or only for advanced trainers.

This is simply not true. Anyone can do a higher intensity workout
by just moving their bodyweight with a few dumbbells. My circuits
workout is actually very easy to set up and follow.



CB: John, how would you set up a 6-minute circuit? I don't
need a bunch of machines all set up in a row, do I?



JB:

Each mini circuit can be completed just with a set of dumbbells

and your bodyweight. A bench helps, but if you don't haveone,

you can use a stability ball.

If you are doing the circuits at home and you don't have either,

a chair or the stairs, or even the edge of your couch can be

substituted in for many of the exercises.

In the workout I explain how to make these substitutions at home.

At the gym you will be fine, all you need is one bench and a set of

dumbbells for the whole thing!




CB: Interesting, this could change the many trainers
look at fat loss workouts. How did you even come up
with the idea?



JB:

It was part of our athletic training program for our women's

varsity hockey team.



I needed to create a whole body workout that gave the girls
a great cardio workout, as well as strength conditioning.

The other catch is we needed to be able to get it done in a
limited amount of space. (in the winter we didn't have access
to the track).

So we created this workout, it met all our needs, it got them
in great cardio and strength endurance condition, in minimal
time.

They continue this workout throughout their competitive season.
The workout became available to everyone when my regular
non-athlete clients started asking what I was doing with the
athletes.

The female athletes were in great shape and my other clients

demanded to be put on the same program. And the rest was

history, now everyone is doing it and loving it.




CB: Since we talked last, I've had guys asking me,

can the 6-minute circuits program work for them if

they are short of time? Would you change anything
for guys?

JB:

Yes, this program definitley works for guys too.

I have some guys on it right now and I currently use it
3 times per week for strength conditioning myself. I find

that if I follow the program exactly as it is written I can
handle about 80-90% of my usual weight for each of
the lifts.

If guys want to use it for max strength I would suggest
giving some more rest between circuits and dropping
some of the reps down to a power range between 6-8.





CB: Very interesting. John has challenged the fitness
world to give up slow cardio and try 6 Minute Circuits.

Let me know what you think...


Sincerely,


Craig Ballantyne,

Author, Turbulence Training