Performance apparel company Hylete recently launched its inaugural Circuit Challenge for Charity (C3), and more than 400 people have already signed up to join the cause and put their fitness skills to the test. One of those to accept the challenge was M&F contributor, Mark Barroso, who will be posting his progress right here on muscleandfitness.com. See Barroso’s Results and Analysis (below) for how he fared in the first circuit of the C3 Challenge.
Circuit 1: Magnesium
The Warmup
There are both warmup and cool down sessions programmed into each of the workouts. Here’s Mark performing a few bodyweight squats and arm stretches, before getting started with the workout.
The work portion called for as many reps as possible in 12 minutes of the following moves. Detailed workout directions and exercise descriptions can be found on the Scoring Sheet and at Hylete.com/C3.
“My final score was 422 and I completed six complete “loops” or rounds of the circuit. I didn’t have access to a 24kg kettlebell so I used a 16 kg kettlebell for the swings. Therefore, those reps were “alternate reps,” thus only counting for 0.5 points towards my final score.
Since not everyone has access to kettlebells, dumbbells are acceptable to use in their place, as I saw one fellow C3 Challenge participant do this via social media. If you don’t have access to dumbbells, I would suggest doing air squats and burpees in place of goblet squats and kettlebell swings, respectively. These would could count as alternate reps.
By the end of loop six, I was drenched in sweat and my C3 Tri-Blend Crew Tee did a great job of absorbing said sweat while keeping me cool. In terms of my personal fitness background, I played high school and collegiate football so I’ve always been into weightlifting and bodybuilding. This year, I’ve kept those principals but sacrificed some hypertrophy work for fast-paced circuits that include strength elements. I’m new to the AMRAP game but I’ve been loving the conditioning effect they have. This workout provided just that: strength-building and metabolic conditioning. Overall, the exercise I need to work on most is the kettlebell goblet squat, since one of my weak points is my lower back. The goblet squat is a great way to improve posture/spinal stability and increase explosives and lower body strength.”
Circuit 2
Circuit 2 will be released Friday, April 15, and nothing is known except what type of equipment we might be using. According to Hylete’s FAQs page, all that will be required for the entire series is a jump rope, kettlebell, abdominal mat, plyobox, barbell, wallball and pullup bar. It doesn’t sound like much but the exercise possibilities with those training tools are vast. Check back next week to see how Barroso tackled circuit two!
Sign up for the C3 Challenge at hylete.com/c3 and share your results using #hyletechallenge.
