In many fitness programs at the collegiate, professional, and middle-aged sportsman levels, circuit training has become increasingly popular and rewarding. All programs of exercise are aimed at improving efficiency, performance, strength, and endurance in as short a time as possible. Few people indeed have enough leisure time to soak up several hours of exercise a week. Profitable, well-rounded exercise must be squeezed into a few minutes a day. Circuit training makes this possible.

Circuit training is applicable to all sports, all climates, all ages, both sexes, and all degrees of proficiency. You can devise a plan of circuit training for yourself.

Circuit training is most easily described by example. At an Eastern university a large exercise room has been reserved for this purpose—and is used by students and faculty. As the circuit trainer enters this room and turns left he stands in front of Station 1 (a floor mat on which he is to do ten sit-ups). The next station along the wall finds him under a bar where he must do two pull-ups. Further along at Station 3 he must run in place for one hundred steps.

He then proceeds around the room, performing the required exercises at each station. Having circled the room and arrived at the door again, he records the time it took him to complete the circuit. The aims in this type of training are:

1. To be able to make the circuit in less and less time.

2. To utilize a program of exercises which involves the entire body.

3. To alternate exercises from station to station which require work from different parts of the body—Station 1: arms; Station 2: abdomen; Station 3: legs; and repeat.

Among our many worthwhile national traits are ingenuity and a knack for being able to find fun. Many of my sporting friends and patients have devised ingenious "circuits" as adjuncts to total fun-fitness. A hardware man has a small mat, a spring pulley, and a punching bag in his cellar.

The workouts mentioned so far have specific purposes. There are other types of workouts, but they are for the duffers, amateur athletes, or pros who wish to compete. In this country, "competition" implies superior performance, possibly breaking a record. However, competition is as much for the duffer as for the star. Proficient or not, everyone should be allowed to compete if he so desires. Little Leagues in this country, soccer in Mexico, skiing in Scandinavia, and cross country running in Britain make this clear.