Circuit training 2

I had so much fun on Tuesday, jogging to Memorial Park for bodyweight training, that I decided to do it again today.

On Tuesday, I spent most of my time at the combined exercise station. I figured this time I could try the full circuit around the lake instead, including running between the stations and doing at least one set at each station. I wanted to test how well this would work.

The weather today was very spring like - misty and cool. This time I took a slightly different route to the park, and joined the lake pathway near the north side of the lake.

This was perfect because the first station I came to was actually the combined station. This allowed me to do a few exercises I wanted to incorporate that I might not have time for when I did the full circuit around the lake.

One of the things I tried while at the combined exercise station was swinging leg raises. This exercise is more specific to developing explosive power like needed for the muscle up. Some trainers don't recommend doing muscle ups, but problems with the exercise seem to mostly stem from overestimating one's ability and progressing too quickly.

After a short time at the combined station, I jogged about two tenths of a mile to the standalone pullup station.

A few quick pullups later and I was on to the next station, which was shaped like a curved ladder.

The best way I've found to use this station is to grab it near the top and then bend down at the knees like the top example picture, except even further, getting a full stretch in the glutes. Then very quickly push upwards, flexing the glutes and using quite a bit of upward force, into the standing position. It felt like a stretch plus a glute movement to me.

Next it was on to the step station, which I used to do box jumps.

Man, box jumps do get tiring more quickly than one would expect! I hope to continue to do these regularly, as I think they'll help me develop strength with upward force, which should be helpful in an uphill mountain race like the Ascent!

The first three stations were all spaced fairly closely, about two tenths of a mile apart. There was more like double that distance, about four tenths of a mile, before the next station.

This station was one of the toughest ones for me, considering my upper body was already getting pretty fatigued by now, not to mention my grip strength was tired. Clearly, this side-to-side hanging motion is one that I need to prioritize in the future, especially earlier on in my workout.

The next few stations were also closer together again. I enjoyed the next station.

More of a stretch than an exercise at first, if you anchor your feet at an angle against the foot bar at the bottom, you can lean back as far as you can and then pull yourself up.

The next station is a standard dip bench. Great for leg raises too.

After that, there is an inclined pushup station. You can also rotate your torso and raise your arms as you do this, making it a more complete upper body movement.

Finally, the situp station! I'll admit I was pretty much ready to run home by the time I got here, and my tailbone was still a bit sore because I probably did at least 7 sets of situps when I was last here on Tuesday. But I did a few reps to at least say I completed the circuit.

Finally, I'd completed a loop around the lake and the whole circuit workout. I'd say doing a full circuit this way, with running in between the stations, is much more difficult than doing the exact same circuit at the standalone station!

My run totalled up to 8 miles today. It's nice to know that I can vary the distance by the direction I go and whether or not I loop the lake, making this run anywhere from 6 to 9 miles.

I'll probably most often just run down to the combined exercise station, do my bodyweight work there, and then loop the lake or run home, because doing a spread out circuit is much tougher! However, I thought it would be neat to try out, plus I figured it may be useful information if someone else wanted to use this park for circuit training.