Group Fitness Real Talk
Group Fitness Real Talk
The Circuit Revival: Why Hybrid Training is Exploding
Circuit training is back, but it's not the same as you remember! Today's circuits blend strength, cardio, and recovery into efficient formats that deliver maximum results in minimum time. But why is this classic format experiencing such a dramatic revival?
Today on the podcast, Will Brereton explores the circuit training renaissance, examines how modern innovations have transformed this classic format, and provides a clear framework for designing effective circuits with any equipment you have access to!
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Enjoy the episode!
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Circuit training is back, and it's not just a nostalgic nod to the past. It's evolving into a powerhouse of efficiency. People today want maximum results in minimum time. And workouts that blend strength, cardio and recovery seamlessly. If your classes aren't delivering this multi faceted punch You might be missing a huge opportunity.
I'm Will Brereton and today we're diving deep into why circuit training is making a dramatic comeback. Why hybrid training is just a new label for the thing we've done for a long time and exactly how you can capitalize on this trend as an instructor no matter where you teach.
Let's get into it.
So first up, we start with the data, but I'm also going to give you a little background on what I'm going to be talking about today in relation to what circuit used to be and what circuit is now. Circuit has been around since the start of fitness as a modern concept and aerobic studios and bodybuilding and running came into the public consciousness.
I started teaching circuit classes 25 years ago. For me, it was body circuit at Les Mills Christchurch, and this was a classic example of what circuit used to be simple pin loaded weight machines that people could operate without too much fuss around the outside of the room
and then an area in the inside of the room where we would do bodyweight or aerobic exercises. Put simply, you'd do 1 minute or 45 seconds on the station, then you'd move in and you'd do 1 minute or 45 seconds of the aerobic move, then you'd move to the next station, and so on. There would be 15 to 20 stations in the workout, again, all weight machines.
And you would alternate between cardio and resistance. Simple as that. Another great example of what a circuit style class used to be was from the woman's only gym, Curves, which has been around since 1992. It was one of the first gyms to focus on that fitness franchising model and they were all over America
Now the Curves circuit was a proprietary circuit that Curves claimed would give you a warm up, strength, cardio, cool down and stretching all in 30 minutes. Now, while we might be able to argue about whether or not it could follow through on all of these things in only 30 minutes, we can agree on is the fact that this was a really great way of getting women who were often intimidated by gym situations -into fitness and resistance training in the gym. The curve circuit was just a literal circuit or a circle of weight machines that people would move on to in their own time. When we talk about circuit today, we're talking about the same style of training but updated to include all the new innovations that fitness has brought in
So you will still be working in a way of having interval based stations and moving from one station to the next. Maybe you repeat the station. Maybe you follow a Tabata protocol. There is no limit to the variety that you can have in the programming.
And when it comes to strength, rather than those pin based Exercise machines that we used to have in a circuit, now you can see Olympic lifting bars and pull up bars. Yeah, they've been around for a while, but they are much more mainstream now than they used to be. There'll be ranges of kettlebells. And often you'll also see equipment being used from the fitness studio.
Studio bars and dumbbells from the studio can be used to create a circuit no matter what resistance training equipment you have. And for the cardio, instead of just doing bodyweight exercises or running on the spot, you might see ski ergs, rowing ergs, assault bikes, spin bikes, battle ropes, and then you also will see TRX's thrown in for good measure for a functional training twist.
Now, depending on the nature of the circuit, you might also see some great functional bodyweight moves. The key thing to note is that while the equipment has changed The simple concept of doing cardio and resistance training in a single workout has stayed the same.
So getting back to the numbers in the data.
As always, trusty ClassPass has shown a significant uptick in demand for workouts that don't waste a minute. Circuit based classes are leading this charge. So HIIT, functional fitness, and hybrid strength cardio workouts are on the rise. According to market research from IbisWorld, These types of workouts have surged by roughly 30 percent over the last two years.
This trend shows that people are choosing structured, results driven formats over long, drawn out sessions. Now, if you've been teaching for a while like me, you probably already know that there used to be a lot of 60 minute classes on the timetable, And now you're much more likely to see classes in the 45 minute range, which brings us on to our next data points F45 the international franchise based team based circuit studio. So F45 stands for functional 45 and I would credit them with really leading the charge on this circuit resurgence.
F45 if we're being honest have had a very rocky few years. They went public, did an IPO during the pandemic, it did not go well immediately after, and there have been potential class action lawsuits against the founders, and legal claims by David Beckham that name Mark Wahlberg relating to celebrity endorsements that happened around that time.
That said, recently, they have returned to form, reporting that their global membership lead volume has increased by 19%, and AUV, or Average Unit Value, so each of the individual F45 boxes, is increasing by 12. 4%. So F45's continued popularity, despite its corporate structuring woes, underscores the popularity of a simple concept that blends strength, cardio and mobility, into one tight package.
Earlier in this series we've already talked about how Les Mills, the previous kings of pre choreography, are leaning hard into simple circuits. Les Mills are pushing their ceremony workout and really focusing in on programming that's not linked to the beat of the music. As always we can't overlook the power of the younger crowd and surveys indicate that as many as 70 percent of Gen Z and Millennials prefer efficient multi faceted workouts over traditional long form gym sessions.
When you break it down, this style of training isn't really new. Hybrid training is just circuit training dressed up in modern branding, tapping into the same need for efficiency and measurable progress.
The key takeaway is that if you're an instructor, you can teach a circuit class. We're going to talk a little bit about why you should and then about how you go about doing it.
So to the analysis, why do we think that circuit training and its modern counterpart, hybrid training, are experiencing such a resurgence? I think it's down to three key reasons. One, it's nostalgia meeting innovation. So as I've talked about, circuit training has been around for decades, but today's version is more strategic, science backed, and engaging.
With new tech, smarter programming, real time performance tracking, updated equipment it's evolved into a workout that feels both familiar but also cutting edge.
Efficiency is the new premium. Our schedules are busier than ever. And people are demanding workouts that pack strength, endurance and mobility into a single effective session. Whether you call it circuit training or hybrid training, the promise is the same. A full body workout in 45 minutes or less. Now remember that hybrid training is just circuit training in disguise.
So the buzz around hybrid training, spurred on by events like HIROX is really just a rebranding of what we've been doing for a while. So hold on these for a moment.
HYROX is an indoor fitness competition that combines 8 kilometers of running and 8 functional workout stations. It spills itself as the world's series of fitness racing and a sport for everybody, and it has been very, very heavily influenced by things like the CrossFit Games.
The difference is that the HYROX competition is made up of 1 kilometer runs, followed by functional exercise stations, that's repeated 8 times. And eight different workout stations. And the thing about the workout stations is they are exactly the type of things that you would see in a classic circuit style class at a studio, or a strength and conditioning box, or in the functional area of a gym chain.
That's what makes it different to the CrossFit games which would include Olympic lifting, swimming, running, handstand walking And was really unattainable to your average exerciser HYROX took what people were doing in circuit classes already and turned it into a fitness race Which is now done all over the world with hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of participants this year
So how can you as an instructor capitalize on the revival of circuit training? First up, design smart circuits. Integrate strength exercises, cardio bursts, and active recovery segments to create a full body workout that's efficient and engaging.
If you're an instructor who is listening to this, then you either teach in the community, at a gym, at a boutique, at a strength and conditioning box, or a combination of them all. The way you design a circuit is always the same. You start with an inventory of the equipment available to you. So it might just be equipment that's already available in a group fitness studio.
A studio barbell and dumbbells and plates, or you could be in a strength box where you have all of the equipment I talked about at the start of this podcast. What you do is you just figure out the equipment that you have. You create a set of exercises, some of them strength, some of them cardio, some of them functional, some of them mobility.
And then you program them in an order which makes sense for the thing that you're trying to achieve. It might be more strength focused. It might be more metabolic focused. You can change it however you wish, but the first thing you've got to do is to figure out what your stations are. Once you have your stations, the sky's the limit.
You can create infinite combinations to fit what your members want.
Experiment with strength only circuits, potentially some mobility circuits. You can do cardio only circuits, or even hybrid circuits that cater to different needs within the same workout. Last up, and this isn't about the circuit itself but how you deliver it, Make progress measurable. Clients love tangible benchmarks, so incorporate timed intervals, rep challenges, or progressive overload techniques so that they can see and feel their progress.
Take a page from the PT playbook and potentially give them a printout that they can use to track their progress. If you're teaching somewhere where you can write on the mirrors or the whiteboard, stick up how they did in the latest class on the board. Maybe you can just do a burpee challenge at the end of the class.
Maybe one of the stations is pull ups and people have to record their maximum number of pull ups that they can do. This is a great way of creating community and remember people are not competing against each other. They're just competing against the version of themselves from yesterday. If they want to compete, they can go to HYROX.
Bottom line, circuit training is not just a passing trend. And as an instructor, it's so easy to deliver. It's reshaping how members think about their fitness goals. And whether you call it circuit or hybrid, the underlying demand is for workouts that are efficient. Versatile and results driven. The best instructors have already realized how simple this is to deliver.
And the fact that it's right on the money in terms of what people want right now and are pivoting to meet this need. Are you ready to join them?
So that's the circuit training renaissance for you. Next episode, we're kicking off part two of our series, where we focus on the big changes that are happening with your class members in 2025 and what they need from you as a result.
The first episode of part two is about how weight loss drugs are completely changing member needs and transforming how we need to teach. You don't want to miss this one.
If you haven't grabbed our group fitness, triple threat guide yet, download it now using the link in the show notes, it's your complete playbook for adapting to every industry shift we're covering in this series.
Until next time, this is the group fitness triple threat.