When I started coaching high school sports teams (wrestling and soccer), I discovered several things very quickly. In a large suburban high school, time in the weight room is at a premium. Running alone is seriously insufficient for the overall fitness of the body. And finally, supervising teenagers in a weight room is like herding cats. Get into the bodyweight circuits!

Bodyweight circuits is all that used to condition my fighters, and now my footballers. (I am a soccer player). The movements are compound, combining muscle groups rather than simply isolating them. Not only is this better for rapid weight loss and fat burning, it’s much better for joint health and functional strength gains. It’s extremely easy to monitor because everyone is doing the same exercise at the same time. I usually put the kids in concentric circles so I can stand in the center or walk through the circles. Since there are 6-10 different exercises in a sequence, the chance of overuse injuries like those sustained while running is significantly reduced.

Bodyweight circuits are a series of bodyweight exercises that are performed for a set period of time, usually 30 seconds, or for a specific number of repetitions. I’ve found that whether I’m doing them myself or supervising my athletes, a set number of reps works best. There is no need to look at a clock or set a timer. Each circuit has 6 to 10 different exercises. The number of exercises per training session should be between 21 and 25, and each exercise should have 20 to 30 repetitions. The circuit is performed nonstop to maximize cardiovascular benefits.

This method is fantastic for almost all sports because the exercises can be tailored to each sport (i.e. more explosive jumping and kicking movements for soccer, and more lunges and upper body strength exercises for wrestling). We like to try to maintain a frequency of two circuits per week in pre-season, in season and out of season. It is very important that you start circuit training in the pre-season and continue throughout the season to prevent loss of fitness.

Every circuit session is a full-body workout, but in designing that workout, you must be careful to order your exercises so that they are not opposites, meaning that an upper-body exercise is followed by a lower-body exercise. for the lower body or a full body exercise. exercise, rather than another upper body exercise. My favorite order is full body, upper body, lower body.

This has worked very well for us. Coaches love it because the athletes are well prepared and it’s very efficient, leaving plenty of time for tactics. Although they curse me while they do it, athletes love it because their conditioning sessions are short and they see and feel the results when they play and when they look in the mirror, and I love it because it’s fast. , easy to monitor and effective. Try this circuit out for your athletes, then modify it to suit your sport and your team’s fitness level.

  • 60 jumping jacks
  • 20 hindu push ups
  • 20 walking lunges
  • 20 spiderman push-ups
  • 20 hindu squats
  • 25 leg lifts
  • 5 burpees
  • 50 high knees