Struggling to find the best workout to achieve your fitness goals? The fitness experts differentiate the circuit vs. interval training to help you determine the best workout depending on your fitness goals, preference, needs, and physical ability.

The Interval Training

According to the renowned physiologist Hector Bones, C.P.T., interval training includes short bouts of exercise. At first, you can go all-out in your intense workout before having a short break to allow for muscle recovery before going back to the exercise regimen again.

According to him, this type of exercise is anaerobic since it’s intense enough for your body to build strength, power, and speed. Unlike endurance training, your body isn’t using any oxygen while performing the workout. You’ll be relying on your body’s strength and power instead.

Some examples of interval training are HIIT, Tabata (which allows you to workout and project maximum output under 20 seconds and recover for another 10 seconds before repeating the process), as well as AMRAP (as many reps as possible). Interval training exercises allow busy people to squeeze in working out. It’ll only take 5 – 15 minutes, or 30 minutes at most of your time, allowing you to be physically fit and healthy despite your hectic schedules.

Other examples include running and walking 100 meters and repeating it 10 times, or doing 10 burpees then taking a short break for 30 seconds before repeating the process again. Bones also emphasizes the huge benefits you can get in interval training. According to him, interval training helps improve your body’s ability to work extremely fast. Since interval training is tough to begin with, it helps hone your body for aerobic exercise. Bones also recommends sprinting for one week before going on a long run or marathon next since you’re likely to do long running with ease.

Circuit Training

This type of exercise training, on the other hand, involves repeating the same set of exercises or undergoing different workouts for a more prolonged time according to Bones. Circuit training is also an example of anaerobic exercise since it needs your endurance, stamina, and oxygen to keep it going. An example of circuit training involves doing 20 walking lugs, 15 rows and pushups, 20 jump squats, and 30 mountain climbing before repeating it for three more rounds. Bones added that circuit training may differ in pacing, though.

Most cardio-vascular exercises are examples of circuit training since it helps build your endurance and stamina.

Unlike interval training where it’s designed to have a fast and intense exercise, circuit training can be fast or slow, or either it centers into cardiovascular or strength-based. The purpose of strength training is to target multiple muscle groups while preventing you from having a burnout.

It also helps keep your heart rate going at a steady pace as you perform different exercises to help target different muscle groups. According to Bones, circuit training is good for a large number of people exercising at the same time in a confined space or having a limited equipment. So if you prefer to exercise at home or if you have limited space and have no access to gym equipment, you may opt to do circuit training.

Can You Do Both?

Undergoing both training regiments give variation to your exercise routine, allowing your body to be highly adaptable in changing circumstances.

According to Bones, it’s possible to perform a combination workout of a circuit and interval training. This usually happens when you sign up for a boot camp-style workout class where you’ll be rotating through different exercises that target a specific muscle group while having a specific work/rest ratio. For starters, you can do a warm up first by having a circuit training before finishing your workout session with a HIIT workout.

Optimizing Both Workouts

To make sure both sets of training work for your body best, the health experts recommend you need to be careful with your exercise selection. For example, you may not want to repeat an exercise where it only uses one part of your body repeatedly as it may lead to overuse injury. So it’s important to vary your exercise every now and then.