Last Updated on December 7, 2017 by MarcyPro
When it comes to building a solid workout session, please note that you don’t necessity need to spend hours and hours trudging away in the gym. In fact, with just one piece of fitness equipment – the Smith Cage Machine – you can easily work out your entire body, all in one go. What’s more, you can do it in fewer than five minutes.
One of the great things about the smith cage is that it allows you to challenge yourself with the comfort of knowing that you are safe. Unlike free weights, where you usually need a spotter to help you through each range of motion in order to prevent potential injuries (once you begin to struggle), the smith cage has its own built-in-spotter and will be there for you throughout each and every exercise.
Let’s walk you through how to build your five minute circuit training session using the smith cage.
Choose Compound Movements
When building your five minute circuit training session, you’ll want to maximize the time that you are exercising by choosing compound movements in order to form the basis of each session.
Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups simultaneously, and in doing so, can work your entire body out using fewer exercises. In this regard, they can also save a good amount of your time spent in the gym.
Primary compound exercises include squats, lunges, chest presses, shoulder presses, and bent over rows.
Work Your Upper and Lower Body Muscles Together
Another important thing to remember as you develop your five minute circuit workouts, is that you’ll want to concentrate on both your upper and lower body muscles together during each session.
This allows you to alternate between your lower body muscles while also working your upper body muscles, thus cutting your total rest time in half. Since one half of the body will be resting while the other half is working, this enables you to keep the momentum of your workouts moving along smoothly, while at the same time getting your heart rate elevated as well.
The end result is that you can turn this traditionally strength-focused circuit workout into one that offers excellent cardiovascular benefits as well.
Keep Your Rest Periods Brief
It’s also a must that you keep your rest periods as short as possible while going through each workout session. Again, this is in order to boost your heart rate and improve your overall cardiovascular levels. It’ll also make each session more intense, meaning you’ll spike your metabolic rate and continue to burn calories hour after hour, long after the workout is over.
Aim to rest for no more than 15-30 seconds between each exercise. Another nice thing about using a smith cage machine is the fact that you can quickly adjust the weight (if necessary) between sets. Also, there is no elaborate set-up required before each workout session, making each training period that much more time efficient.
So now that you have a good idea as to the basic structure of these training sessions, let’s look at how to assemble each five minute circuit workout using the smith cage machine.
The Five Minute Circuit Workout
For this workout, you’ll want to perform 10 to 12 reps for each exercise, moving from one exercise to the next in an efficient manner. Once the entire circuit is complete, rest for 30 seconds and repeat the entire circuit one more time.
- Back Squats
- Flat Bench Chest Press
- Stationary Lunges (Left Leg)
- Stationary Lunges (Right Leg)
- Standing Shoulder Press
- Low Bar Back Squats
- Bent Over Rows