The Effects of Varying Intensities During Circuit Training on Body Composition

The Effects of Varying Intensities during Circuit Training on Body Composition

Dick Woodson

Physiology of Muscular Activity and Exercise

November 17th, 2009

Introduction

People are always curious to know how hard they have to work to achieve the goals in fitness that they set out to gain. Body composition is something that so many people are very self conscious about, but at the same time they do not know much about it. Almost everyone you meet would say that they want to look better and do not know how to lose the body fat that they want. Also, most people do not want to put in the effort needed to lose the body fat that they want, which is where our current study will be effective. We will be studying the relationship that circuit training has on body composition and how different intensities affect body fat percentage.

Circuit training has many advantages; for example is can be used by many different populations because it is structured and participants are guided through the workout with little to no planning on their part, in most cases it does not take up much space, and most importantly, if done correctly it can have a great affect on body composition and strength. The reason circuit training affects both body composition and strength is because it uses a combination of both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems depending on intensity. Circuit training however, is generally more aerobic in nature which means that the strength gains are usually less effective than the usual anaerobic weight training programs used by individuals training to gain muscle mass and strength. Another benefit of circuit training found by Williams and Cash (2001), found that circuit training reduced social physique anxiety and improved appearance evaluation and body dissatisfaction in both males and females.

Another factor that is crucial in body composition is diet. In a sense, it is true that “you are what you eat”. You can exercise frequently and still not have the...