In my first article on this subject, I explained why, if I had to have all my lifters/athletes train one way, it would be using strength circuits. I then proceeded to list all the positives and negatives of this training style before cunningly leaving you with absolutely no information on how to actually program them. Read it here.
After all, if I had given you all the goods immediately, you would have just called me an Uber immediately afterward, and I would never hear from you again.
But here is the follow-up article that will give you guidelines on how to create a program using strength circuits. I have done my best to make it as open-ended and flexible as possible without drowning you in a million different options. But some advice I would give before you try this style of training for the first time:
- Go with a lower frequency than you think you need
- Set your percentiles/loads a bit lower than you think
- Choose your exercises wisely to create as much balance as possible
Strength circuits are HARD and taxing on the nervous system, so there tends to be a fine line between great results and burning out. If in doubt, you are much better off airing on the side of caution, as the result will still be good.
Step 1. Choose Your Number of Exercises
For it to be a strength circuit workout, it really has to involve at least three exercises. Otherwise, it is just a super-set. I also would not include more than five exercises in your circuit; the more motor tasks you have to swap between, the more adrenaline that must be released. Adrenaline is part of why this training style can feel great, but at some point, the neurological fatigue becomes too great. Likewise, trying to perform more than five compound movements at heavy loads with good technique is already a tough ask.
If you choose four or five exercises, you will perform the same strength circuit every workout in the training week. In contrast, if you choose three exercises, I would advise performing two different strength circuits (an A and B workout) throughout the week. Performing the same exercises each workout will maximize the strength gains due to the higher frequency. However, not everyone can realistically set up five stations/exercises at once in their gym or have the recovery ability to juggle that many exercises per workout.
| Number of Exercises in Circuit | Benefits | Drawbacks |
| 3 | Easier to set up in commercial or small home gyms. Less neurologically taxing. | Will involve performing two different circuit workouts throughout the week (A and B). Less frequency will diminish strength gains (and hypertrophy to a lesser degree). |
| 4-5 | It allows the same circuit to be performed at each workout to maximise frequency and gains. It allows the creation of a well-rounded circuit without the need for different workouts. | It is more neurologically taxing due to a higher number of exercises. It can be harder to set up depending on your gym setup. |
Step 2. Choose Your Training Frequency
The majority of the benefits of this training style stem from its ability to allow us to perform our chosen lifts at a higher frequency than we would normally perform. Unfortunately, this training style will not work if you can only train twice per week; you just will not accumulate enough volume across the week to reap the rewards.
The bare minimum training frequency with strength circuits is three days per week. This assumes you have chosen to use a four- or five-exercise circuit that allows you to perform the same exercises at each workout. If you are using a three-exercise circuit, then your frequency will have to be four days per week to allow you to perform each workout twice per week.
On the upper end of the spectrum, you could perform strength circuits up to five days per week, as long as the workout volume is moderated. However, this would be done as a sort of “blitz approach” where you are looking to make a lot of progress in a short time, with some form of de-load period planned afterward.
| Training Frequency (per week) | Works with | Notes |
| Two days | Does not work with strength circuits approach due to lack of frequency. | In these circumstances, a whole-body approach is still best. But you want to use an approach that allows you to maximise performance on each exercise and accumulate more volume in one session. |
| Three days | Four or five exercise circuits that utilise the same exercises at each workout. | This allows the volume and intensity to be high at each session due to there always being at least one rest day between sessions. |
| Four days | Three-exercise circuits if we perform each one twice per week. Four to five exercise circuits with the same exercises at each workout. | If using an A and B setup, you can still make sessions intense by reducing cross-over between the A and B sessions (I.e., a deadlift variation in workout A and squat variation in workout B for the lower workout). If using a four to five exercise circuit, you may need to moderate or wave intensity and volume from session to session to allow adequate recovery, i.e., two “hard” and two “moderate” (where moderate sessions are the same sets/reps but loaded five percent lighter). |
| Five days | Three or four to five exercise circuits. | This will definitely require some form of waved intensity/volume to allow adequate recovery. Or sessions are all set up the same but at an overall reduced intensity. This will not be doable for most lifters for extended periods of time. |
Step 3. Choosing Your Exercises
Exercise selection will depend primarily on the number of exercises performed at each workout. If we use a three-exercise circuit, we need to stimulate the whole body from those three exercises, so something like a push-pull-leg setup works extremely well here. Having different variations of these patterns in the A and B workouts can make the program more balanced overall.
Three-Exercise Circuit Setup Examples
Workout A
Frankenstein/Front Squat (Legs – Squat pattern)
Military/Push Press (Push – Vertical pattern)
Weighted Chin/Pull-up (Pull – Vertical pattern)
Workout B
Deadlift/Trap-bar Deadlift (Legs – Hinge pattern)
Bench/Floor Press (Push - Horizontal pattern)
Pendlay/Trap-bar Bent-over Row (Pull – Horizontal pattern)
*Note – see how Workout A could be set up in a single power rack, assuming it had pull-up handles. Workout B could be set up in a single power rack and some floor space or by taking up a bench press with some floor space (you can remove the load off the same trap bar to do the rows or take the barbell off the bench to do bent-over row).
We have covered the six major movement patterns across the A and B workouts to create an all-around balanced program. I am not saying you MUST do this, but I think this is a very good way of setting up this approach to leave no movement pattern or muscle group under-stimulated.
Four-Exercise Circuit Setup Examples
With a four-exercise circuit, my favored method would be to stick with a push-pull-leg setup but also include a “whole-body” exercise, which usually takes the form of an Olympic Lift variation. I like to have this performed first in the circuit as it will tend to be the most complex movement in the circuit, so being a little bit more well-rested will pay dividends here. Also, being an explosive movement, it is less draining than “slow” lifts, so it will have less of a fatiguing effect on the following three exercises.
If you do not want to include this lifting style in your circuit, then the fourth exercise I would add would be a loaded carry. This can be a carry that stimulates a muscle group, or groups, that you want to give some extra stimulus to, or it can simply be one you want to get stronger at. In this scenario, since the loaded carry is the most metabolically demanding exercise we perform, it would be put last in the circuit.
With a “Whole-Body Lift”
1 – Clean-grip Muscle Snatch/Snatch-grip High Pull/Thruster (Whole Body)
2 – Dips (Push)
3 – Pull/Chin-up (Pull)
4 – Front Squat (Legs)
With a Loaded Carry
1 – Push Press (Push)
2 - Pendlay Row from Block (Pull)
3 – Heels-elevated Trap-bar Deadlift (Legs)
3 – Yoke Carry/Farmers Walk/Zercher Carry/Overhead Carry (Carry)
Five-Exercise Circuit Setup Examples
Using a five-exercise circuit to create a balanced workout is a little easier and certainly gives us more options. It allows us to include both a “whole body” movement and a loaded carry or even bias the circuit to work on a particular facet of our performance, such as leg strength.
The most balanced approach here will involve some form of Olympic Pull as you can easily count this as both a hinge and pull movement, which then leaves us four remaining movements to allocate two push movements (horizontal and vertical), one pull movement (I would suggest a vertical pull here since Olympic pulls are more upper back dominant, but your call) and squat pattern for the lower body.
For example, my current strength circuit setup is this:
1 – Snatch-grip High Pull (Legs – Hinge and Pull – Horizontal)
2 – Weighted Dip (Push – Horizontal…ish)
3 – Weighted Chin-up (Pull – Vertical)
4 – Military Press (Push – Vertical)
5 – Paused Zercher Squat (Legs – Squat)
This circuit setup creates a pretty balanced training effect that is slightly biased toward the areas I want to improve most, such as the upper back and shoulders. One day per week, I add some skill work on the bench press and deadlift to get some extra pec and hamstring work to compensate for the slight lack of it. But that is a personal preference.
Even though I have the awesome benefit of training at the S5 compound, the other benefit to this setup is that I can go to a commercial gym and perform this simply by taking up one power rack (if it has pull grips and a dip handle) or one rack and a dip/chin-up station. In that circumstance, I simply swap the Zercher squat for Frankenstein or Front Squat so that I can use the same rack height as the Military Press. I do Zercher Squat the majority of the time as it does not beat up my shoulders/wrists when I do it for high frequency.
With a five-exercise circuit, you can be pretty imaginative and bias it one way or another quite easily. For example, if you wanted a leg-dominant circuit, you could do something like this:
1 – Front Squat
2 – Push Press
3 – Cheat Pendlay Row
4 – Floor Press
5 – Deadlift
Here, four of the five exercises involve a degree of leg work. The Push Press and Cheat Pendlay Row both involve a strategic leg drive to allow us to use more weight. If you are worried about lower back fatigue, the Cheat Pendlay Row could be swapped for Power Snatch/Clean (from the hang), and the same bar could still be used for the Deadlift.
Likewise, the Deadlift could be subbed out for a non-spinal loaded lower body movement like a Sled Push/Pull or GHR/Nordic Curl.
You get the idea.
Step 4. Choosing Your Loading Scheme and Progression System
Now, there are a million different options here. For the sake of your attention span, I will give you a few different options that I know will work well with different setups, and then you can always devise your own based on these.
Option 1. Double Progression
Works best with – all varieties
The Double Progression system involves having a rep range instead of a specific rep number. The goal is to hit the upper limit of that rep range on all of your work sets using the same load. Once you achieve that, you can increase the load at the next workout and repeat the process.
For example, if our target was four sets of four to six reps, our progression may look like this:
Week 1 – 200 pounds x 6, 6, 5, 4
Week 2 – 200 pounds x 6, 6, 6, 5 (2 extra reps)
Week 3 – 200 pounds x 6, 6, 6, 6 (increase load next workout)
Week 4 – 205 pounds x 6, 6, 5, 5
And so on.
We do not want to go above six reps per set for strength circuits, and we want to give ourselves a three-rep “window” to aim for. So, the options are:
1-3
2-4
3-5
4-6
Your choice will depend partly on what you aim to achieve from the program. The 1-2 or 2-4 rep range will work best if you are purely strength-focused. On the other hand, 3-5 and 4-6 will give you less maximal strength gains but more total volume and a greater hypertrophy stimulus.
Then, we simply need to select the number of sets we perform. The more exercises you have in a circuit, the fewer sets you can perform per exercise, and the higher the rep range, the fewer sets you can perform per workout. Generally, we want to complete 15-25 work sets per workout, so long as those sets are all challenging.
So, if we are using a three-exercise circuit, that leaves us with 5-8 work sets per movement. If we were using a 4-6 rep range, we would favor the lower end of that (five sets), whereas if we were performing sets of 1-3 reps, we could use the high end of that range (seven to eight work sets).
Likewise, with a five-exercise circuit, 15-25 total work sets give us 3-5 work sets per exercise. So, we can apply the same logic here.
The good thing about this system is that it allows incremental improvements by simply aiming for an improvement in total reps, which does not have to be achieved at every workout on every movement. Weight is only increased once we have truly improved with our current load rather than forcing weight increases too early. Secondly, it allows each movement to progress at its rate, as not all movements will progress at the same rate due to skill level, absolute load used, and various other factors.
Option 2. Hepburn Progression
Works best with – Three-exercise circuits (A+B structure)
The Hepburn Progression model is one of my favourites as it lines up with the genuine rate of progress that a lifter can expect to make once they are past the beginner stage, which is much lower than you think. With this system, you perform eight work sets per workout starting at a load of 80-85 percent one rep max (1RM). I would definitely advise starting at 80 percent 1RM when using this in circuits. In Week 1, you perform eight sets of two, and then as the weeks progress, you swap a set of two for a set of three until you are performing eight sets of three.
So, it looks like this:
Week 1 – 200 pounds – 8 x 2
Week 2 – 200 pounds – 7 x 2, 1 x 3
Week 3 – 200 pounds – 6 x 2, 2 x 3
Week 4 – 200 pounds – 5 x 2, 3 x 3
Follow This Plan Until
Week 9 – 200 pounds – 8 x 3
And then, we repeat the process.
Week 10 – 205 pounds – 8 x 2
It is a slow burner but also completely sustainable, provided you stick to the suggested two to three percent weight increases per training cycle. And remember, since you are performing each circuit twice per week in most cases, you will increase the load every four and a half weeks or so. Which, in reality, really is not that slow. This progression does not work if you rush the progress and up the weights too much or start too heavy.
Since the number of sets per exercise is so high, this progression system does not work with a four or five-exercise circuit, as it makes total volume too high. However, it works very nicely with a three-exercise circuit when we utilize Workout A and Workout B structures. Since the per-session volume is so high, this is probably the only way to make a three-day per week training frequency work with strength circuits.
This is a great approach to run longer term, and due to the high overall volume, it is very effective for those looking to “power build.”
Option 3. Technical Mastery
Works best with – any variation
Technical mastery is the best approach for those after pure strength gains and neurological efficiency. Like the Hepburn progression, technical mastery focuses on performing a high number of sets per exercise, but they are performed as sub-maximal singles. By performing only singles, we can perform a very high number of sets, which gives us a chance to practice all other elements of the exercise (set up, walk-out, etc) and keep loads high while keeping sets sub-maximal.
By performing only sets of one, we increase loading as high as 85-90 percent 1RM and perform a high number of sub-maximal sets without excess fatigue while maximizing neurological efficiency.
The progression system here would be to increase the number of singles we perform over time and then increase the load before resetting the volume back down and starting again. A simple approach would be:
Workout 1 – 5 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 2 – 6 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 3 – 7 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 4 – 8 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 5 – 9 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 6 – 10 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 7 – add the smallest possible amount of weight and go back to 5 x 1
The exact number of singles we perform and the progression system will again hinge on the number of exercises in the workout and the training frequency. A productive workout will have a range of 25 to 40 singles performed across all exercises. So, if we are using a five-exercise circuit, our upper limit would be eight singles per exercise, whereas, for a three-exercise circuit, it could be as high as 12 or 13.
When using a four- or five-exercise circuit and performing each movement more regularly, I suggest using a slower progression system than listed above. The above will work very well with a three-exercise A/B setup as you will “only” be increasing the load every three weeks, which is doable for a moderate time. However, if you perform the same movements four or five times per week, you could increase the load every two weeks or less, which is not sustainable. In that scenario, if you want to use a progression like the one above, I would repeat each volume for two workouts rather than one. For example:
Workout 1 – 4 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 2 – 4 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 3 – 5 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 4 – 5 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 5 – 6 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 6 – 6 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 7 – 7 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 8 – 7 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 9 – 8 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Workout 10 – 8 x 1 at 85 percent 1RM
Then, repeat the cycle, adding the smallest amount of weight.
Option 4. 5-4-3-2-1 Countdown
Works best with four or five exercise circuits.
I include this method because it has been my favorite since my mentor, Christian Thibaudeau, introduced it to me. This method involves adding weight to the load but reducing reps every round. Since the reps and load change with each round, this is the most neurologically demanding variation I have listed. However, it has a very cool effect; once you get to round three and the reps drop down to three, the sets start to feel easier, and the amount of neurological activation starts to outweigh the amount of physical fatigue.
It is a very powerful method that is best utilized with a higher frequency (three to five times per week), but it cannot be run for long periods. I have used this for stints for six to eight weeks, depending on the frequency, and have seen fantastic results. However, some may “hit the wall” earlier.
The goal is to add load to all sets every five or six workouts. This WILL work but progress that fast can only happen for so long before you burn out. Even if you are “only” doing this workout three times per week, that still means adding weight every two weeks. So, this is a great way to make fast progress in a handful of target lifts. But just be aware that you cannot stick with this system for long.
Your workout will look like this:
Round 1 – 5 reps at 80 percent
Round 2 – 4 reps at 85 percent
Round 3 – 3 reps at 90 percent
Round 4 – 2 reps at 95 percent
Round 5 – 1 rep at 100 percent
*IMPORTANT NOTE
The percentages listed here are based on a “training max.” It is something that you can hit any day, even if fatigued, which is usually around 90 percent of someone’s true psyched-up, completely fresh one-rep-max.*
Conclusion
When using this with a five-exercise circuit, you accumulate 25 work sets across five exercises at 80 percent or above in around 45-50 minutes (if it takes you longer than an hour, then you hang around too much or set the loads too high). The density of workload and stimulus is extremely high. Enjoy.
As I said in my first article, I think strength circuits are a training methodology that every serious lifter should try at least once, even if it is just to make all your other workouts seem pleasant by comparison. So, there you go. Hopefully, that is enough for you to go away and concoct your own strength circuit workouts and programs.
If you are not all auditioning as Marvel heroes/villains within the next three months, then I have failed you miserably.
Tom Sheppard is a strength and powerlifting coach based at the elitefts compound. As a coach, he has worked with professional athletes from a wide variety of sports worldwide, including rugby, baseball, MMA, and high-level powerlifters. Tom is the co-owner of Phoenix Performance and the Head Coach at Thibarmy. He also contributes content for companies such as elitefts and T-Nation. Tom presented at the 2022 and 2023 SWIS Symposium alongside some of the biggest names in the fitness industry.
