We have had the privilege of receiving a copy of a new circuit training fitness book from the publishers this week. The book is due to be released on 1st January 2010 and is called Hardcore Circuit Training For Men, by Jim Mchale and Chohwora Udu.
£ UK Customers order here
$ American Customers order here
It is published by Price World Publishing and will be available in major book shops in the United States, Canada, UK, and Australia. This book is certainly recommended for anyone who is looking to develop a circuit training or bodyweight training program.
Hardcore Circuit Training for Men is a very functional book. By that we mean that the bulk of the book details various different circuit training routines with detailed descriptions and images for all the main exercises.
The two authors both have sports backgrounds: Jim McHale is an endurance athlete and ex-amateur boxer with more than ten years experience designing gym circuits. Chohwora Udu has more than thirty years experience in boxing as both a professional fighter and as a coach.
The introduction, or section 1, briefly outlines information on exercising to the right intensity by calculating and monitoring your heart rate. There is also some nutrition advice and useful resources.
The first 128 pages cover the following topics, plus advice on warming up and cooling down properly:
- Body Weight Workout
- The Bench Workout
- Kettlebell Workout
- Plate Workout
- Barbell Workout
- Swiss Ball Workout
- Hill Workout
- Multi-Machine
- The 4 Miler
- Swim Circuit
For each of these workouts Mchale and Udu provide a list of exercises, the number of reps to perform, instructions for each exercise and photos. There are also links to YouTube videos.
To follow all the circuit training routines in this book you will need to purchase some equipment, such as free weights, kettlebells, a bench, Swiss ball etc. If you are a member of a gym this will really help. Otherwise your home gym will require some diversification.
It is the really not until the Hill Workout that this book shows its hardcore nature. The first routines are standard routines for anyone performing circuit training to get fit or enhance athletic performance. The Hill Workout, with sandbags for resistance, is where this book really shines. As with the previous workouts, the text is kept to a minimum with descriptions and photos which guide you through the session.
The gym workout requires more gym equipment, such as an exercise bike, rowing machine, treadmill, Lat Pull-down Machine, dumbbells, bench barbell; and two plates.
There is a good reason why this is called a gym workout! It provides you with a structured way to workout in the gym. If you spend most of you gym session using one piece of equipment then you may actually be holding your progress back. This workout will provide a full body workout.
The swim circuit will turn a few heads at the local pool as there are sit ups and press ups mixed up in the various different swimming strokes. This is really not that well thought out as the average reader will not have access to a pool where they allow poolside exercising to take place. It would be better to remove the dry exercises and focus only on swimming, with more information on warm ups and cool downs for swimmers.
The 3rd section of the book explains how you test your fitness. To be able to assess how well you are progressing you need to be able to measure your fitness levels. Here there are instructions on performing the multi-stage beep tests, using the Spartan 300 Workout to gage your fitness levels, and also instructions on determining your 1 rep max to allow you to take a more scientific approach to your weight training.
Some training logs are provided at the end of the book to allow you to keep detailed note of your training progress.
This is a very useful resource for those beginning circuit training as a means to get fit. There is at times an over reliance on external media, such as YouTube video clips, to help explain or demonstrate specific exercises.
The descriptions are sometimes a little brief, with no mention of alternative methods, or fine details on ensuring correct form is maintained. However, this is also one of the books strengths – it is easily accessible, does not take too long to read and provides many new ideas for fitness training. It is easy to enhance your fitness regime with Hardcore Circuit Training For Men.
Hardcore Circuit Training for Men by James McHale
I really have to disagree with you here. This book is terrible. The first circuit outlined is the bodyweight circuit which has you doing 30 clap pushups followed by 10 one armed pushups on each side… Wow, if i could do that i wouldn’t need the book. You then go on to later do 10 pistols per side and 20 burpees with a jumping jack. The burpees are doable but the idea of doing 10 pistols per leg and then immediately doing burpees seems idiotic. You’d have to almost be an elite level athlete to complete some of these workouts and that seems to shoot the idea of accessibility out of the water.
It is certainly not a basic introduction to circuit training, and it does not pretend to be. It is “Hardcore”, and that means tough.