Shirl - as you wish . . .
The reason I prefer to do Circuit Max with barbell squats, plie squats and lunges ONLY is that my leg power is much greater than my upper body power for relative weight-loads; thus if I try to do the compound upper / lower body cycles as produced I always fall totally out of my heart rate because the legs aren't being challenged enough. Plus, because I usually do most of my upper body lifting seated, to do them standing forces me to go with lighter weights, which I've found does my upper body muscles no good at all.
I get enough upper body endurance work in the aqua classes and other pool drills that I do that I don't really need to add in weighted endurance work for the upper bod.
When I switches over to leg-resistance-only stuff for C-Max I got a whole lot sweatier and happier. For the first resistance cycle I do standard squats at a regular tempo (56 total); for the second resistance cycle I do 28 lunges per leg (quick-switch of the legs after the first 24) at standard tempo; for the third resistance cycle I do 56 plie squats at standard tempo; for the fourth resistance cycle again 24 lunges per leg standard tempo; for the fifth resistance cycle I do a series of squats at tempo, then with a 3-count hold, then with a long hold transitioning into a static plie squat; then back to a series of plie squats with a 3-count hold, then 8 plies standard tempo; for the sixth cycle I do 14 lunges per leg with a 3-count hold for each lunge. Recently, after that (I do skip the chest, back and plank work) I've begun adding in the Cardio Kicks power drills, 15 minutes of pure blood, sweat and smugness upon completion, adding in about 2 more minutes of whatever I feel like doing barbell-legwise.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .
A-Jock
