Are you looking to find a free and convenient home workout to burn fat? If so, you are in the right place! Today’s post will give you 9 home circuit training exercises that will ignite your inner metabolic furnace (and torch that fat!).
I have been regularly exercising for 12 years now, alternating between muscle-building and fat-loss cycles. In those 12 years, I have realized how powerful tool circuit training is to combat fat.
Today, I will be sharing 9 simple bodyweight exercises which require no equipment and can be done anywhere. I have even constructed a 20-minute fat burner for you, so make sure you read to the end!
Are you ready?
Tie up those laces, and let’s go!
What Is Circuit Training?
Circuit training is a type of all-body workout. It will train your cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance.(1)
It is also a form of high-intensity, low-duration exercise. In other words, you are exercise is performed vigorously for only a short period of time. These exercises are great for burning lots of calories in not a lot of time!(2)
Circuit training involves performing one specific exercise for a specified duration of time (usually ~30-60 seconds).
After completing one exercise, you immediately move on to another exercise without a break. Each exercise will target specific muscle groups. Working for one muscle group at a time will allow the other muscle groups to recover whilst maintaining an elevated heart rate
A typical circuit training routine will cycle between 6 or more exercises within a circuit. This is why it is called circuit training.
Why Circuit Training?
Circuit training is an extremely efficient fat burner. A person weighing 150 pounds can burn over 300 calories in just half an hour(1).
That’s around 450 calories in 45 minutes! This is more than enough to burn off a light lunch!
Studies have also associated regular circuit training with increased cardiovascular function, decreased waist-hip ratio, decreased body fat, decreased premature death, and improved general health(3).
Circuit training is also appealing to many people due to the practicality and convenience of this workout.
Practical Benefits Of Circuit Training
1) Convenient– perform at the gym, at home, or outside.
2) Free– no equipment required.
3) Engaging– many different exercises to perform.
4) Shallow Learning Curve– suitable for all fitness levels.
9 Home Circuit Exercises
Here are our favorite circuit exercises to incorporate into a circuit training workout.
They are all bodyweight exercises and require no extra equipment.
The entire list, combined, will work the muscles in your entire body. For those who want to burn even more calories, we have also provided ways to kick things up a gear!
1. Lunges.
This is one of the most effective exercises to burn fat.
It will work the muscles in your entire leg and glutes. These are the largest muscles in the body, making them perfect candidates to expend calories!
The back and core muscles are also activated for stability.
Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes, core, lower back.
How To Perform:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Take a long forward stride with one leg and plant the foot onto the ground (keep the back straight and head up).
- Bend the forward knee to a 90-degree angle. This will lower the body. The backward knee should be just touching the ground.
- Use the forward leg to drive backward. This will bring the body back to the standing position.
- Repeat with the other leg.
Harder Variation: Try a jumping lunge. From the lunge position, push explosively with both legs into a jump. Switch the leg positions mid-air so you land with the opposite leg forward.
2. Squats.
One of the most popular exercises for beginners and hardcore fitness freaks alike! The squat is a great exercise for toning the legs and buttocks.
Just like the lunge, the squat will also work the entire lower body, core, and back.
Both exercises provide a solid fat-burning foundation for a circuit training workout.
Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes, core, lower back.
How To Perform:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Bend both knees to lower the buttocks towards the ground (keep back straight and at a 45-degree angle).
- When both knees are at a 90-degree angle, use both legs to drive the body upwards.
- This will bring the body back to the standing position.
- Repeat.
Harder Variation: Try a jumping squat. Perform a normal squat, but on an upward motion, push explosively with both legs into a jump. Whilst in midair, tuck the knees into the chest. Land softly on your feet.
3. Wide-Arm Pushups.
Another popular exercise. The pushup is simple yet effective.
The push-up mainly works the upper body (chest, arms, and shoulders). But when performed with proper technique, the core and glutes are also activated.
If you struggle with a full pushup, you can get on your knees for support. Then you can slowly build up the strength to perform full pushups.
Muscles Worked: Pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), triceps (arm), core, gluteus maximus
How To Perform:
- Get into forearm plank position (hands on the ground, arms extended, back straight, legs together with toes touching the ground).
- Now position your hands slightly wider than the shoulders. Keep the back straight, core/buttocks tight, and head up.
- Lower the body towards the floor.
- When the body is just touching the ground, drive upwards with both arms.
- This will bring the body back to the forearm plank position.
- Repeat.
Harder Variation: Clap both hands together at the peak of the upward motion for a plyometric fat blaster!
4. Burpees.
This is the king of circuit training exercises. The burpee is an explosive movement that will work your entire body.
It is a hybrid of some of the other exercises on this list (squat, pushup, mountain climber).
The burpee can be difficult for beginners to complete, but it is guaranteed to elevate your heart rate! This means more calories burnt.
Muscles Worked: Pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), triceps (arms), quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, calves, core.
How To Perform:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Push your hips back, and drop into a squat position, with both hands touching the ground.
- Kick both feet out into a forearm plank position.
- Now tuck both feet back into a squat position, and drive into a jump with hands raised towards the sky.
Harder Variation: Once in a forearm plank position, perform a full pushup before driving into the jump.
5. Mountain Climbers.
Mountain climbers are a simple exercise that will provide an isometric workout to the upper body and a cardiovascular workout to the lower body.
Combined, this will be sure to elevate your heart rate.
Muscles Worked: Pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), triceps (arms), quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, core.
How To Perform:
- Get into a wide forearm plank position.
- Lift one foot upwards and pull the leg forward, towards the arms.
- Tuck the leg into the abdominals.
- Return the leg back to its original position.
- Alternate between both legs. Always keep the arms straight and keep one foot touching the floor. This will give you a solid base.
Harder Variation: Try to see how many you can do in one minute. Increase the speed to burn more calories.
6. Crunches.
Crunches are a fantastic way to work out your abs.
The abdominal muscles are actually a group of muscles, including the rectus abdominus and external obliques. Crunches will activate the entire group.
Performing crunches in a circuit workout will allow time for your upper and lower body to recover, whilst keeping your heart rate elevated.
Muscles Worked: Core
How To Perform:
- Lie on your back with your legs straight.
- Place the hands behind the head.
- Lift the upper body and the legs in one simultaneous motion.
- Touch the knees with your elbow, above the abdominals.
- Return back to the lie-down position.
Harder Variation: Try a frog crunch. Lie on your back, legs out. But put the soles of both feet together. Perform the normal crunch motion. You will find that putting the soles of your feet together will make the movement much harder.
7. Plank.
The plank is a great way to add variety to your workout. Its simplicity makes it ideal to perform at home.
By holding the plank position, muscle groups in the entire body will be engaged in an isometric workout.
Do not let the simple look deceive you. The plank is hard to perform, even for seasoned fitness freaks!
Muscles Worked: Deltoids (shoulders), triceps (arms), core, glutes, secondary muscle activation in the entire body also occurs to stabilize the position.
How To Perform:
- Get into a forearm plank position.
- Lower the elbows and put your body weight onto the forearms (flat on the ground).
- Keep the back straight and the head facing forward.
- Contract the abdominals and glutes to help maintain a straight back.
- Hold the position for at least 10 seconds.
Harder Variation: Try a one-legged plank by lifting one leg and keeping it off the ground.
8. Narrow-Arm Pushups.
This is is a variation of the normal wide-arm pushup.
It makes it onto the list because it focuses the muscle activation onto the chest and triceps.
The narrow-arm push-up is a great way to incorporate upper-body strength training into your circuit workout. Strength training will promote calorie burning even after a workout is finished. This is due to the afterburn effect.
Muscles Worked: Pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), triceps (arm), core.
How To Perform:
- Get into a forearm plank position.
- Put your hands together with the index finger and thumb of both hands touching. This will make a diamond shape.
- Keep the back straight, core/buttocks tight, and head up.
- Lower the body towards the floor.
- When the body is just touching the ground, drive it upwards with both arms. This will bring the body back to the forearm plank position.
Harder Variation: Introduce a 1-second pause half way through the upward and downward motion.
9. High Knee Jog.
This is a harder variation of “jogging on the spot”. Exercise intensity is increased by raising the knees past the hips.
The high knee jog is a convenient and effective cardiovascular workout that can be done at home.
Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes, core.
How To Perform:
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.
- Begin jogging on the spot.
- Raise the knees to hip level.
- Keep the back straight and the abdominal muscles contracted to maintain good form.
Harder Variation: Place both hands behind the head and interlock your fingers. As you drive up one knee, touch it with the elbow of the opposite side. This will increase abdominal muscle engagement.
20 Minute Home Circuit Fat Burner
Now let’s combine the 9 exercises together to create a 20-minute workout:
The circuit workout is split into 3 groups of activity. Each activity consists of 3 one-minute exercises to perform consecutively with no break in between. A 30-second rest between activities will allow recovery.
The circuit workout will take 21 minutes to complete.
Always aim to complete as many repetitions of each exercise within the allotted 60-second timeframe. The nature of this workout means it is suitable for everyone. If you are a beginner, you can take it slow. If you are a seasoned fitness freak, push yourself to exhaustion!
Although each exercise may seem relatively easy at first, remember you are trying to do as many as possible in the allotted 60 seconds.
You will find it becomes very intense very quickly! If an exercise becomes too intense, it’s ok to slow down or even take a short rest. This is normal.
Conclusion
That’s it!
Today, I have explained the practical benefits of choosing to perform circuit training. I have detailed 9 home circuit training exercises that can be performed anywhere. These exercises rely simply on your own body weight.
Finally, I have created a 20-minute calorie blaster for you to try at home!
But remember- fat loss cannot be achieved by exercise alone. You will also need to combine exercise with an effective diet plan to realize your dream physique.
Have you tried our 20-minute home circuit fat burner? How did you find it?
Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions! You can find my details on the “contact us” page.
You may also be interested in the downloadable Kalibre Blueprint PDF which details exactly how I gained 40lbs of lean muscle (it’s 100% free!). It details the exact exercises and nutrition (with printable worksheets) I used to go from skinny to ripped!
Thanks for reading guys!
Peace Out,
Kal
(Biochemistry BSc, Biomedical Sciences MSc, Ex-Skinny Guy)