Doublets and Triplets: Breathing Newness Into Old Exercise Routines
No matter what part of your life you examine, it is almost always subject to redundancy. It’s not a bad thing because in many instances, the “routine” is what maintains safety and order in our lives. In sports, however, it is of the highest priority to continue developing a skill set and never be complacent with your progress. This is the primary reason why great athletes at all levels have a coach or a trainer...to keep the athlete challenged and progress towards adaptation to the training or sport requirements. For many of us, we are our own coaches when it comes to our exercise routine, occasionally drawing inspiration from others, and improving our skill set by learning from more experienced mentors. So let me introduce the concept of “doublets” and “triplets” in order to create a circuit training routine from a routine you might already be on.
Circuit training is sequencing a set of exercises into a series of stations where rest vs. work periods can be varied to achieve a certain goal like metabolic conditioning or system fatigue. Circuits that are well programmed can reduce the risk of injury while achieving a sensible goal for the individual. One of the many benefits of circuit training is the ability to challenge the cardiovascular system while performing strength moves. Another benefit is that muscles can work synergistically as a group instead of in isolation, which is practical for sports performance.
For example, take a calisthenic move like the push-up, abdominal crunch and pull-ups. In a ‘Triplet’ those movements would be performed in sequence either for time or for repetition, and when you complete one cycle of those moves, you repeat 2-3 or more times to produce a number of sets. So let’s say you are weak or struggle to do pull-ups but are strong in push-ups and fair in abdominal crunches. You may structure this circuit as such:
Push-ups for time
Crunches for repetitions
Pull-ups for repetitions
REPEAT CIRCUIT at least 3 times
The ‘Doublets’ is simply doing 2 exercises which may be unrelated, performed with limited resting periods in between. One of my favorite ‘Doublets’ is to work a set of opposing muscle groups such as a PUSH move followed by a set PULLS. For example, doing seated rows followed by push-ups, or doing planks followed by super-mans. You can do biceps followed by triceps in a ‘Doublet’ but you shouldn’t expect to have the same intensity as if you just did a single isolated muscle like bicep curls only, as the opposing muscle stress typically inhibit one another. Hence, the more sensible the circuit, the more efficient your gains.
So take your routine moves and combine them into a sensible circuit of ‘Doublets’ and ‘Triplets’! Strength and Conditioning researchers have found that combining movements that you already know into a continuous series in a circuit can produce new gains. If you have a circuit you wish to share, email me at www.southpaschiro.com
Dr. Adrian is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a 17 year private practice Doctor of Chiropractic in South Pasadena.
